Who was Johannes Rau? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

German Celebrities Born In January

Died At Age: 75

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Christina Rau

Presidents German Men

Died on: January 27, 2006

place of death: Berlin, Germany

Cause of Death: Heart Disease

City: Wuppertal, Germany

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Childhood & Early Life

Johannes Rau was born on 16th January 1931in Wuppertal, Rhine Province.

He decided to drop school in the year 1949. The ideals and beliefs of his Protestant family rubbed off on the young Rau and he began his career by collaborating with the Protestant Youth Publishing House, as a publisher and journalist.

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Career

Rau’s first step into joining politics was to become a member of GVP or the All German People’s Party. This party was founded by Rau’s mentor, Gustav Heinemann in the year 1952. The main agenda of the party was to reunify Germany. Unfortunately, GVP had a brief run and was disbarred in 1957.

Later, he followed his mentor into SPD or the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1958, where he was given the responsibility of overseeing the Wuppertal region. After being appointed the deputy chairman of the region, he also joined the City Council, where he served in the post of the chairman of the entire SPD Group, from 1964 to 1967. He also went on to become the Mayor of Wuppertal, from 1969 to 1970.

He was elected to become the chairman of the SPD group in the Landtag. His efforts at education reformation in his country soon grabbed everyone’s attention. In the 1970s, he had initiated a mass-education campaign, under which he established five universities as well as Germany’s first university which facilitated distance learning.

In the years 1977 and 1978, he was appointed Chairman and Minister President, respectively of the North Rhine-Westphalia wing of the SPD. Since his party remained in the majority for a considerable period of time, he retained his positions without difficulty till 1998.

Rau served two terms as the President of the Bundesrat, which kind of pre-approved him as a possible candidate for the position of Federal President. He stepped down from his positions as the Minister President and Chairman of SPD voluntarily in 1998. The Federal Assembly of Germany elected him as the Federal President on 23 May 1999.

Major Works

The main focus of Rau, during the five years as the President of Germany, was to attempt a reunification of his country. He did so by eliminating all the negativity that had been bred through Germany’s violent and unstable past.

His contribution towards ushering development in the field of higher studies was commendable. After becoming the Science and Education Minister in 1970, he went on to set up five universities at different locations. Rau is also credited with establishing the first distance learning institute at Hagen.

Awards & Achievements

Rau was awarded the Leo Baeck Medal for his outstanding work as a humanitarian, who championed the causes of social justice and tolerance, among the masses of Germany. He also received fifteen honorary Doctorate degrees from various accomplished institutions.

He was awarded the ‘Grand Cross Special Class’, which was among the highest honors given in the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Among the honors bestowed by other countries, was the honor of the ‘Grand Sta’r by the Republic of Austria in 2004, a ‘Collar’ each from Estonia and Czech Republic etc.

Personal Life & Legacy

Rau got married to Christina Delius on 9 August 1982. They were blessed with two daughters and a son.

He had a serious case of abdominal aneurysm since 1995 but refused surgery till 2000, because his election campaign was in full swing at the time. In 2004, he faced another life-threatening heart operation, where he was fitted with artificial heart valve. With this began his long history of heart diseases which finally culminated in his death on 27 January 2006.

Trivia

One of his significant contributions during his five year term as the President of Germany was his extensive foreign tours across the globe to promote anti-Nazism. He is said to have visited about 76 countries during his term as the President.

He will always have a special place in the hearts of the people of Israel. All the Israelis will remember the moving speech that he gave in Israel’s parliament in the year 2000, in which he went on to apologize the merciless prosecution of the Jews by the Nazis. Moreover, he had delivered the entire speech in his native language, German.

Johannes Rau Biography