Manfred Rommel

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Manfred Rommel in 2004

Manfred Rommel (born December 24, 1928) is a German politician (CDU), who was Mayor of Stuttgart from 1974 until 1996. He is one of the most popular local politicians of the CDU.

He was born in Stuttgart being the second of two children of World War II Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the only one of Lucie Maria Mollin. After his father had committed suicide by poison in 1944, he deserted from the Wehrmacht and surrendered to Maréchal Tassigny's French First Army.

In 1947, he took his A-levels (Abitur) in Biberach an der Riß and went on to study law at the University of Tübingen.

In 1956, he started his career by becoming a high ranking-ranking civil servant and later state secretary in the state-government of Baden-Württemberg.

In 1974, he succeeded Arnulf Klett as Lord Mayor of Stuttgart by winning 58.5% of the votes in the second round of elections, defeating Peter Conradi of the SPD. He was re-elected after the first round of elections in 1982 with 69.8% and in 1990 with 71.7% of the votes.

Helmut Kohl appointed him supervisor to the French-German Affairs succeeding Gerhard Stoltenberg in 1995, a post he held until 1999, leaving his position to Rudolf Von Thadden.

In a 1996 celebration at the Württemberg State Theater, Manfred Rommel received the highest German civil distinction, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, out of the hands of the then Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl. In his speech, Helmut Kohl put particularly emphasis on the good relations that were kept and build upon between France and Germany during Rommel's tenure as Lord Mayor of Stuttgart. This positive development was attributed to Manfred Rommel. A few days after this distinction was given to Rommel, the city of Stuttgart offered him the Honorary Citizen Award.^[1]

Having retired from politics in 1996, he is still in demand as an author and speaker. Occasionally, he writes articles for the Stuttgarter Zeitung, a regional broadsheet from Stuttgart.

He suffers from Parkinson's disease.

[edit] Honours

President of the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gesellschaft
Orden des Großoffiziers im Orden von Oranien-Nassau (1982)
Ehrensenator der Fachhochschule für Technik Stuttgart (1982)
Honorary doctorate of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (1983),

of the Maryland University and

the University of Wales

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic (1985)
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1990)
Verdienstmedaille des Landes Baden-Württemberg
Theodor-Heuss-Medaille
General-Clay-Medallion
Dolf Sternberger-Preis
Karry Preis
Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland