Philipp Jenninger
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Philipp-Hariolf Jenninger (born 10 June 1932) is a German politician of the CDU. He served as President of the Bundestag from 1984 to 1988, when he resigned after protests related to his speech commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
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[edit] Life and ministerial career
Jenninger was born in 1932 in Rindelbach, now a part of Ellwangen. He studied law at the University of Tübingen, obtaining a doctoral degree in 1957 with a dissertation titled Die Reformbedürftigkeit des Bundesverfassungsgerichts (The necessity of reform of the Federal Constitutional Court) and passing the state examination in 1959. In 1960, he started working in the Bundeswehr administration in Stuttgart. He became an assistant in the Federal Ministry of Defense and later personal assistant and press contact of Federal Minister for the Affairs of the Defence Council Heinrich Krone. After the dissolution of this ministry, he worked from 1966 to 1969 as political assistant of Federal Minister of Finance Franz Josef Strauß.
Between 1982 and 1984, Jenninger was Staatsminister in the German Chancellery, assisting Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
[edit] Bundestag membership and presidency
Jenninger was a member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1990, always as directly elected representant of a constituency. At first, he represented Crailsheim; after 1976, he represented Schwäbisch Hall.
After Rainer Barzel's resignation, Jenninger was elected President of the Bundestag on 5 November 1984. As President, he made a controversial speech in a special session on 10 November 1988 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Jenninger tried to explain the reasons behind German enthusiasm for National Socialism in the 1930s. His speech was presented badly (by his own later admission), as his way of speaking allowed the interpretation that Jenninger didn't sufficiently dissociate himself from the Nazi ideas he referred to, making it hard to distinguish what were his own ideas and what were the "fascinating" (as Jenninger said) Nazi ideas he was just reporting.[1] More than 50 members of parliament walked out during their President's speech in protest.[2] This caused a political storm, and Jenninger resigned his Bundestag presidency on 11 November. He did not stand for reelection as a Bundestag member in the 1990 elections. One year after the incident, Jewish community leader Ignatz Bubis, who later became chairman of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland, used several passages of Jenninger's speech verbatim (although he didn't use the word "fascinating"), demonstrating that the content of Jenninger's speech had not been wrong, just his performance of it.[3]
Jenninger later became a diplomat and worked as the German ambassador in Vienna, Austria from 1991 to 1995, and as ambassador to the Holy See from 1995 to 1997.
[edit] References
- ^ American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Yearbook Vol. 90, 1990, p. 358.
- ^ The New York Times, November 13, 1988, Storm of Protest.
- ^ Peter Schmalz, "Keiner hat etwas gemerkt", Die Welt, 1 December 1995. (German)
This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 2006-10-01.
[edit] Literature about Jenningers Speech
- Jeffrey Herf: "Philipp Jenninger and the Dangers of Speaking Clearly." Partisan Rewiew 56 (1989): 225-236.
[edit] Literature
Michael F. Feldkamp (ed.), Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt - Funktion - Person. 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007, ISBN 978-3-7892-8201-0
[edit] External links
- Philipp Jenninger in the German National Library catalogue
- Biography at the Bundestag website (German)
- Complete text of Jenninger's speech, also as audio version (German)
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jenninger, Philipp-Hariolf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jenninger, Philipp |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | German politician and diplomat, former President of the Bundestag |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 10 June 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rindelbach (Ellwangen, Germany) |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
