| Heinrich von Brentano | |
|---|---|
| Brentano in 1956 | |
| Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs West Germany |
|
| In office 6 June 1955 – 30 October 1961 |
|
| Chancellor | Konrad Adenauer |
| Preceded by | Konrad Adenauer |
| Succeeded by | Gerhard Schröder |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 June 1904 Offenbach, German Empire |
| Died | 14 November 1964 (aged 60) Darmstadt, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) |
| Alma mater | University of Giessen |
| Religion | Catholic |
Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo (6 June 1904 – 14 November 1964) was a German conservative politician (CDU) and lawyer. He served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1955 to 1961.
Brentano was born in Offenbach am Main, the son of the lawyer and Centre politician Otto von Brentano. He belonged to a family of Italian (Lombard) origin which had settled in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in the 17th century and were recognized as Hessian nobles, with close contact to important figures of the German Romanticism, including Goethe, Savigny and Arnim. He was related to famous German poets such as Clemens Brentano and Bettina von Arnim. The author Bernard von Brentano was his elder brother.
From 1932, he worked as a lawyer in Darmstadt, and from 1943 until 1945 as a prosecutor in Hanau.
Brentano remained a bachelor throughout his life. In 1961, rumors circulated about his homosexuality, to which Adenauer replied: "He had not hit on me yet."[1]
Brentano died of cancer at the age of 60. He was buried at Waldfriedhof Darmstadt.
After World War II, Brentano was one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Union in Hesse and became a member of the Landtag of Hesse in 1946, from 1947 as parliamentary party leader.
He also attended the proceedings of the Parlamentarischer Rat assembly drafting the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. In the federal elections of 1949, he obtained a seat in the West German Bundestag parliament by directly winning the mandate of the Bergstraße constituency. In the federal parliament, he was the leader of the CDU faction from 1949 to 1955 and again from 1961 until his death.
A member of the European Common Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Brentano was an important figure in the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC).
After the Allied occupation statute had been lifted in 1955, he was appointed Foreign Minister of Germany at the suggestion of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who prior had filled the office himself. Brentano resigned when Adenauer had to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party after the federal election of 1961. He was succeeded by his party fellow Gerhard Schröder.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Konrad Adenauer |
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs 1955–1961 |
Succeeded by Gerhard Schröder |
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