Annemarie Renger

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Annemarie Renger at the SPD federal party conference in 1973

Annemarie Renger , b. Wildung (born October 7, 1919 in Leipzig ; † March 3, 2008 in Remagen ), was a German politician ( SPD ). She was president from 1972 to 1976 and vice-president of the German Bundestag from 1976 to 1990 .

family

Annemarie Renger came from a social democratic family. Her grandfather was already an active social democrat. She was one of seven children of the carpenter, SPD politician and sports official Fritz Wildung (1872-1954) and his wife Martha (1881-?). The mother joined the SPD in 1908 - the year in which women could become members of the party for the first time. In 1924, his father became managing director of the Central Commission for Workers' Sports in Berlin. The Nazis banned him from practicing his profession in 1933 and persecuted him. In 1938 Annemarie Wildung married the advertising manager Emil Renger, who died in the summer of 1944 near Chartres in France. Her son Rolf Renger (1938–1998) was also an active social democrat. At the age of 26 Annemarie Renger was widowed for the first time and had lost three of her four brothers in the war. In 1945 she met Kurt Schumacher , whose close confidante and partner she was until his death in 1952. From 1965 on, Annemarie Renger was married to the economist and diplomat Aleksandar Loncarevic from Yugoslavia , who died in 1973. From 1965 she lived in Oberwinter - Birgel , most recently with her granddaughter, her husband and two great-grandchildren. Annemarie Renger died in the Oberwinter district in 2008.

education and profession

Annemarie Wildung first attended the Staatliche Augustagymnasium , which was run as a girls' grammar school in Berlin , which she had to leave in 1934 because the scholarship required at the time was withdrawn from her because of the social-democratic sentiments of her parents. Out of necessity, Renger then completed an apprenticeship in publishing , which she successfully completed with the commercial assistant examination; until 1945 she worked as a publishing clerk in Berlin . She then worked as the private secretary of SPD chairman Kurt Schumacher in the office named after him, Dr. Schumacher . In addition, from 1946 she headed the office of the SPD party executive, first in Hanover and then in Bonn.

Political party

The bond with social democracy survived the period of National Socialism, after which Annemarie Renger wanted to make determined use of the newly won freedom: “Germany was a field of rubble before us. I was determined to get involved politically and to help build a democratic Germany. I wanted to help so that the world no longer had to experience war. ”From 1945 Annemarie Renger was a member of the SPD. On October 1, she took up a position as Kurt Schumacher's private secretary. She later said that when she was ten, her career aspiration was to be "party secretary". She became aware of the SPD chairman Schumacher, who had been detained and abused in concentration camps for almost ten years by the National Socialists, when she read his speech entitled “We don't despair”; she then decided to get to know him. The well-known photo in which Annemarie Renger supports the seriously ill Kurt Schumacher, who is disabled because of his leg and arm amputation, has become “an icon of post-war history”. From 1962 to 1973 she was a member of the SPD federal executive, from 1970 to 1973 also in the SPD executive committee. From 1979 to 1983 she was a member of the Control Commission of the SPD. Along with Egon Franke, Renger was one of the leading figures in the so-called “ canal workers ” in the SPD.

In the election of the German Federal President in 1979 , she ran as a candidate for the SPD, but lost with 431 votes to the candidate of the Union parties, Karl Carstens , who received 528 votes. The 66 representatives of the FDP in the Federal Assembly abstained from voting.

“So she perceived the SPD not only as a political lobby group, but above all as a community of like-minded people. This community appealed not only to the mind, but also to the heart and feeling. Here she learned not only to look at the world, but to understand it. Here she found support. This is where the will to help improve the world arose. The bonds and formations that were developed here were so strong that they lasted a lifetime. "

- Gerhard Schröder, former Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

Annemarie Renger was one of the founders of the Seeheimer Kreis in 1974 . About Annemarie Renger, the Seeheimers are in the traditional line of a national wing of the SPD, from their boss Kurt Schumacher (1895–1952) through his doctoral supervisor Johann Plenge (1874–1963) to the Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch group during the First World War was enough. After the SPD lost its participation in government in October 1982, the influence of the Seeheimer Kreis declined. This led to the foundation of the Kurt Schumacher Society under the leadership of Annemarie Renger. Annemarie Renger was elected first chairwoman and led and shaped the work of the Kurt Schumacher Society until her death.

MPs

Annemarie Renger was elected to the German Bundestag in 1953 , to which she then belonged continuously until 1990. From 1959 to 1966 she was also a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and the WEU . From 1969 to 1972 she was Parliamentary Managing Director of the SPD parliamentary group and thus the first woman to move into the narrower parliamentary committee of the SPD parliamentary group.

When the SPD formed the strongest parliamentary group for the first time after the 1972 federal election , it was elected as the first woman to the office of President of the German Bundestag on December 13, 1972. At the same time, she was the first woman in the world to head a freely elected parliament. Renger later said: “I proposed myself to the parliamentary group for the office of President of the Bundestag. Do you think they would have taken me otherwise? "

Annemarie Renger at a meeting of SPD federal working groups

At the same time, she was chairman of the “Budget Sub-Commission” and the “Commission for Issues of Taxation of Members' Diets” of the Bundestag's Council of Elders and of the Joint Committee under Article 53a of the Basic Law . After the federal election in 1976 , the CDU and CSU again made up the strongest parliamentary group and Annemarie Renger was replaced by Karl Carstens. Renger himself was elected one of the vice-presidents of the Bundestag . She held this office until she left the German Bundestag in December 1990; During this time she was also the chairman of various commissions of the Bundestag council of elders. From June 24, 1977 to 1983 Renger was also deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag.

In the Bundestag vote on November 22, 1983 on an SPD motion for a NATO double resolution , which called for further negotiations with the Soviet Union before the deployment of new medium-range missiles, she abstained, along with 24 other parliamentary group colleagues (including Helmut Schmidt and Egon Franke , Dieter Haack , Karl Ahrens and Hans Matthöfer from the right wing of the SPD), the voice.

Social Commitment

From 1985 Renger was president of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund . From 1987 to 1998 she was chairwoman of the supervisory board of McDonald's Kinderhilfe and from 1991 to 1995 chairwoman of the "Association of Former Members of the German Bundestag and the European Parliament e. V. “She was also chairwoman of the Central Association of Democratic Resistance Fighters and Persecuted Organizations and from 1990 to 1992 President of the European Movement Germany .

Honors

Annemarie Renger was honored in many ways for her special commitment in the German-Jewish-Israeli relationship. She headed the German-Israeli parliamentary group for fourteen years. In 1992 Renger received the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal together with Hildegard Hamm-Brücher . She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev and in 2006 the Heinz Galinski Prize of the Berlin Jewish Community . In 1995 she received the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and in 1974 the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

In honor of her life, an act of mourning took place in Berlin on March 13, 2008 .

She was buried in Bonn's southern cemetery.

perception

From the 1980s onwards, Renger was referred to in the press as the “grande dame” of German social democracy. Renger valued style and demeanor; She was said to have a fondness for sports cars and furs, and her hair was perfectly coiffed. In 1980 she made the newly elected SPD MP Gerhard Schröder aware of the lack of a tie: "Comrade Schröder, when the election of the Federal Chancellor is tomorrow, you should wear a tie as it should be." Schröder followed the instructions and summed up at State act after Renger's death in 2008: “For them, wearing the correct clothing was an expression of respect for a constitutional body of democratic Germany. The institutions of parliamentary democracy were to be respected. For Annemarie Renger, they radiated a dignity of their own that could not be violated. ”In 1987, the Green MP Thomas Ebermann stepped up to the lectern in the plenary hall of the German Bundestag, dressed quite casually . Renger pointed out to him: "Close your shirt." Ebermann obeyed.

Quotes

“I achieved what I wanted. It has been proven that a woman can do that. "

- Annemarie Renger, President of the German Bundestag a. D.

"I am a piece of social democracy."

- Annemarie Renger, President of the German Bundestag a. D.

“With her we have lost an important parliamentarian, a committed democrat, a member of parliament with body and soul. Annemarie Renger was the first woman and social democrat in the history of the German Bundestag to hold this office and she did it with pleasure and conviction - with certainty and dignity. It was characterized by their occasional vigorous will to assert themselves, which all parliamentarians were able to experience across parliamentary groups. "

- Norbert Lammert, President of the German Bundestag

Publications

  • Social Democracy and Parliament. In: Contributions to individual problems of the “Draft of an economic-political orientation framework for the years 1973–1985”. Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973, pp. 29-37.
  • Parliamentarians in the European assemblies. In: Wolf Frühauf : Science and Worldview. Festschrift for Hertha Firnberg . Vienna 1975, pp. 49-56.
  • Annemarie Renger, Karl Carstens, Alfred Ollesch : Self-understanding. The Bundestag as reflected in three contributions to the debate. Bonn 1977.
  • The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliaments - origins and objectives. In: Heinz Rosenbauer , Volkmar Gabert : Parliamentarism and federalism. Festschrift for Rudolf Hanauer on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Ehrenwirth, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-431-02064-X , pp. 184-189.
  • Justified criticism keeps you alive. The Bundestag has remained adaptable and ready for reform. In: Hartmut Klatt : The Bundestag in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn 1980, pp. 141-144.
  • Necessity and forms of parliamentary planning support. In: Jürgen Jekewitz , Michael Melzer , Wolfgang Zeh : Politics as a lived constitution. Festschrift for Friedrich Schäfer . Westdeutscher Verl., Opladen 1980, ISBN 3-531-11500-6 , pp. 87-92.
  • Fascinated by politics. Contributions to time. Seewald, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-512-00610-8 .
  • The central place of politics. In: Eckart Busch : Parliamentary Democracy. Festschrift for Helmut Schellknecht on his 65th birthday. Heidelberg 1984, pp. 3-8.
  • A fascinating job. In: Rupert Schick : The President of the Bundestag. Stuttgart 1987 (9th edition), ISBN 3-87959-315-9 , pp. 117-122.
  • Does the state of the Basic Law need elements of direct democracy? In: Philipp Jenninger : Undaunted for Europe. Festschrift for Kai-Uwe von Hassel on his 75th birthday. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1988, ISBN 3-7890-1576-8 , pp. 339-345.
  • Forty years of the German Bundestag. Experience and standards. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . Bonn 1989, issue 37, 38, pp. 7-12.
  • A political life. Memories. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-421-06532-2 .

Philatelic

On October 10, 2019, the first day of issue, Deutsche Post AG issued a special postage stamp with a face value of 155 euro cents to mark the 100th birthday of the former President of the Bundestag . The design comes from the graphic designer Julia Neller from Berlin.

literature

  • Jürgen Mittag: From Circle of Dignitaries to European Network: Six Decades of European Movement Germany ; in: 60 Years of the European Movement Germany ; Berlin 2009; Pp. 12-28. Online ( Memento from January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  • Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 2: N-Z. Attachment. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , pp. 680-682.

Web links

Commons : Annemarie Renger  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Obituaries

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New York Times December 14, 1972: Woman in the News
  2. ^ Picture by Renger with Schumacher
  3. ^ Speech by the President of the German Bundestag, Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, at the memorial event in honor of Annemarie Renger
  4. ^ Speech by Federal Chancellor a. D. Dr. hc Gerhard Schröder on the occasion of the state act for Dr. hc Annemarie Renger on Thursday, March 13, 2008, 9 a.m., in Berlin (plenary hall, German Bundestag)
  5. ↑ dipbt.bundestag.de
  6. ↑ dipbt.bundestag.de
  7. ↑ Noon 2009: 29
  8. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
  9. ^ Act of mourning for Renger ( memento from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Federal Ministry of the Interior
  10. ^ Gisela Notz : More than colorful dots in the Bonn men's club: Social Democrats in the German Bundestag 1957–1969. Dietz, Bonn 2007, p. 226.
  11. ↑ Quoted from the speech manuscript; Gerhard Schröder: In memory of Annemarie Renger. Plenary hall of the German Bundestag. In: Gerhard-Schroeder.de , March 13, 2008.
  12. ^ According to the speech manuscript speech by the President of the German Bundestag, Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, at the memorial event in honor of Dr. hc Annemarie Renger, former President of the Bundestag D. Plenary Chamber of the German Bundestag. In: Bundestag.de , March 13, 2008.
  13. ↑ tagesschau.de on the death of Annemarie Renger (tagesschau.de archive)
  14. ↑ tagesspiegel.de on the death of Annemarie Renger
  15. ↑ Appreciation of the President of the Bundestag, Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert via archive.org
personal data
SURNAME Renger, Annemarie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wildung, Annemarie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2008
Place of death Remagen