Roman Herzog

Roman Herzog (Landshut, Bavaria, April 5, 1934 - Jagsthausen, Baden-Württemberg; January 10, 2017) was a professor of Political Law, professor and German politician. Militant of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), was president of Germany from July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1999.

Family and studies

He was born in Landshut, Bavaria, into a petit-bourgeois family and was baptized into the Protestant Church. His father was a commercial clerk and later an archivist and director of the Landshut state archive. Roman Herzog attended a Gymnasium and when he passed the Abitur (baccalaureate) in 1953, he was first in the class.He was a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

He studied law in Munich until 1957 and completed the practical phase of vocational training with the second state examination in 1961. During this practical phase, in 1958, he obtained his doctorate. The same year he began to work as a scientific assistant at the Faculty of Law at the University of Munich, a position he held until 1964. In 1964 he qualified for a professorship. He taught at the University of Munich, ^{[citation required]} first as a scientific assistant and, from 1964, a professor. Between 1966 and 1969 he taught at the Free University of Berlin, of whose Faculty of Law he was dean, and from 1969 to 1972 he was a professor at the Higher School of Administration of Espira, of which he was rector since 1971.

His wife, Christiane Herzog, whom he married in August 1958, died on June 19, 2000; Roman Herzog later married Alexandra Freifrau von Berlichingen.

Political career

In 1970 he joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and in 1973 he began his political career as representative of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate before the federal government (1973-1978). He was Minister of Culture and Sports. in the Government of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg from 1978 to 1980 and member of its parliament (Landtag) from 1980 to 1983. Also from 1980 to 1983 he was Minister of the Interior of that state.

From 1983 to 1987 he was vice president of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, an institution of which he was president from 1987 to 1994, when he was elected Federal President of Germany by the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung). He served as president from July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1999.

During his term as head of state he adhered to the representative functions that the Constitution confers on the federal presidency. In this sense, with the state visits he made to Eastern European countries, he encouraged a rapprochement between Germany and the countries of the former Soviet bloc.^{[citation required]} He proposed the granting of an amnesty to those accused of crimes of a political nature committed in the former GDR.

He was awarded the Charlemagne Prize and, together with the Czech Václav Havel, recognition as European Statesman of the Year.

Herzog did not run for a second term and on July 1, 1999 he was replaced by the social democrat Johannes Rau, winner of the elections on May 23 of that year. When he succeeded him, Johannes Rau was minister-president of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

In 1997, through his ambassador in Spain and on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, he apologized to its survivors for Germany's involvement in it.

He died on January 10, 2017 due to a serious illness.