Extract

Minister of Justice (1966–1969) and President of the Federal Republic (1969–1974), Gustav Heinemann (1899–1976) has attracted relatively little historical attention. In his admiring biography, Thomas Flemming seeks to highlight the significance of this ‘forgotten Bundespräsident’. Underscoring Heinemann’s commitment to republican values and bürgerliche virtues, Flemming makes a persuasive case for regarding Heinemann as a leading Citoyen who contributed significantly to the construction of German civil society.

A member of five different political parties across his lifetime, Heinemann exhibited greater continuity of conscience than party or organizational loyalty. Descended from 1848 revolutionaries and a product of the ‘new middle class’, Heinemann rebelled against the authoritarianism of German schooling. An enthusiastic nationalist and soldier spared combat in the First World War, he was nonetheless a critic of the Kaiser who welcomed the new republic. As a university student, he joined friends Ernst Lemmer, future West German Minister for Inner German Affairs, and Wilhelm Röpke, leading theorist of the Social Market Economy, in defending the Weimar Republic in a hostile political climate. An active member of the German Democratic Party (DDP), Heinemann secured his place in the bourgeoisie in 1926, when he joined a prominent Essen law practice and married the daughter of a wealthy Bremen businessman; his wife would encourage his growing interest in Christianity, to which he committed himself in 1929.

You do not currently have access to this article.