Arnold Vaatz

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Arnold Vaatz in Dresden, 2016

Arnold Eugen Hugo Vaatz (born August 9, 1955 in Weida , Gera-Land district , GDR ) is a German politician ( CDU ), member of the Bundestag and former GDR civil rights activist .

Arnold Vaatz has been one of the deputy chairmen of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group since 2002 .

From 1990 to 1992 he was Minister of State in the Saxon State Chancellery and from 1992 to 1998 Saxon State Minister for Environment and Regional Development.

Life

After graduating from the Extended Oberschule (EOS) in Greiz in 1974 , Vaatz completed his 18-month basic military service in the NVA and began studying mathematics at the Technical University of Dresden in 1976 , which he completed in 1981 as a qualified mathematician. He later completed a distance learning course in theology and was qualified to preach freely . After studying mathematics, he initially worked as a research assistant and from 1987 as a group leader for computer technology at VEB Complete Chemieanlagen Dresden . At the end of 1982 he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for refusing to serve in reserve due to the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1982, which he served until May 1983 in the Unterwellenborn penal institution . There he was obliged to do forced labor in the Maxhütte steelworks (Unterwellenborn) .

From October 1989 Vaatz worked in the group of 20 and was instrumental in the occupation of the Dresden district administration of the Ministry for State Security on December 5, 1989. Together with Steffen Heitmann , Vaatz was active in the citizens' committee for the dissolution of the district administration and the Dresden district office of the MfS.

In mid-June 1990 Vaatz was appointed as deputy government representative for the Dresden district by the de Maizière government. In this function and as chairman of the coordination committee for the formation of the State of Saxony , he set the tone for the re-establishment of the Free State of Saxony on October 3, 1990.

Arnold Vaatz is married and has four children. In his private life he deals with postage stamps . In April 2015, Vaatz was appointed an auditor in the Association of Philatelic Auditors . His test area is Saxony.

Political party

Biedenkopf cabinet 1990; fourth person from left: Arnold Vaatz

In October 1989 Vaatz joined the New Forum and eventually also became its press spokesman .

In February 1990 he then joined the CDU. It is largely due to him that it was not Klaus Reichenbach of the CDU bloc party who became Saxony's first prime minister, but Kurt Biedenkopf . From 1993 to 1995 he was deputy state chairman of the CDU Saxony. After he was unable to assert himself as deputy chairman at the state party congress in 1995, Vaatz decided to start over at the federal level. From 1996 to 2000 he was a member of the CDU federal executive board and from 1998 to 2000 he was also a member of the CDU Presidium. After he had failed in the election to the Federal Presidium of the CDU in April 2000, Vaatz publicly called on Biedenkopf to make room for a successor as Prime Minister, which met with considerable criticism in the Saxon Union. Since 2002 he has been a member of the federal executive committee of the CDU again.

MP

From 1990 to 1998 he was a member of the Saxon state parliament .

Vaatz has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1998 . In October 2002 he was elected deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group for the areas of rebuilding the East , human rights and economic development.

Arnold Vaatz has always entered the Bundestag as a directly elected member of the Dresden II constituency or, since 2002, of the Dresden II - Meißen I constituency . In the 2005 Bundestag election he received 35.2% of the first votes . In the Bundestag election in 2009 he was able to get back into the Bundestag in the same constituency, as did in 2013 and 2017. In 2017 he received 25.3 percent of the first votes before Anka Willms from the AfD with 21.9 percent.

Public offices

In 1990 he was appointed Minister of State in the Saxon State Chancellery in the Saxon State Government led by Prime Minister Kurt Biedenkopf . According to Der Spiegel , Biedenkopf did not agree with Vaatz's way of renewing the CDU state party, which is why he - striving for harmony in the CDU Saxony - transferred the former civil rights activist after only one year from the state chancellery to the Ministry of the Environment, where Vaatz was Saxon State Minister until 1998 for the environment and regional development.

Positions, controversies and criticism

In the dispute over the Dresden Waldschlößchenbrücke , Vaatz stood up as an advocate for its construction and sometimes sharply attacked critics. In spring 2007 this led to corresponding reactions and the resignations of the artistic director of the Dresden Music Festival, Hartmut Haenchen and the president of the Saxon Academy of the Arts and chairman of the World Heritage Board of Trustees, Ingo Zimmermann, from the CDU. ( Dresden Bridge Dispute )

Vaatz advocates the use of nuclear energy even after the Merkel government's decision to exit . He is critical of renewable energies and especially solar energy . In July 2012 he called the energy turnaround a “pointless experiment” that was “hardly feasible and for economic reasons [...] completely nonsensical” and which he did not believe would be realized. Chancellor Merkel immediately rejected this through her government spokesman Seibert. “The nuclear phase-out is decided and irreversible,” Seibert told the press.

In February 2012, in an article for EIKE , an organization of the German climate change denial scene , he declared that the “energy policy impasse” of the energy turnaround was the result of “merciless pressure to conform, which emanates from a post-religious society that wants to live out its unemployed religious sensus ". This pressure to conform has "a direct circuit generates for society, while the forms of direct circuit as [sic] know from the history of European dictatorships, is not the same, however, has very similar traits."

In 2014, Vaatz considered it questionable that the AfD - at that time still under Bernd Lucke - would, in his opinion, be “pushed to the extreme”.

Together with Klaus Brähmig he wrote regarding the marriage law equality of lesbians and gays passed by the Bundestag in 2017: "We are alien ashamed of the way this society deals with the views of life of our ancestors who can no longer defend themselves."

Vaatz was a member of the board of trustees of the German Wildlife Foundation until the end of December 2019 . He resigned in protest when the foundation parted ways with its long-term sole director Fritz Vahrenholt on December 19, 2019 , “due to different ideas about the position of the foundation in the current climate policy discussion”. Vahrenholdt, a denier of man-made global warming , had spread his views on behalf of the foundation.

In 2020, Vaatz criticized in a guest contribution for Tichy's insight the way Berlin politicians and police dealt with a demonstration during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany . The number of participants would be reduced, which corresponds to "roughly the gossip about the 'gathering together of a few rowdies' with which the GDR media initially reduced the demonstrations in autumn 1989". The aim is to "get the streets empty", which is why politicians and officials have warned against right-wing extremists participating. Therein lies the threat of being defamed as a Nazi and so socially ruined: "With Nazis it was clan, in Germany today it is collective". These statements caused criticism and calls for resignation against Vaatz from the SPD and the Greens. Focus Online called them "crude conspiracy theories". The police union (GdP) also contradicted Vaatz and described his comments as "deeply unqualified". This would give "conspiracy fanatics (...) an unnecessary boost". The German Police Union described his comparison as "malicious and mean". The Tagesspiegel rated statements by Vaatz as false. He received sporadic support from Union and FDP politicians. Axel Fischer said that when Vaatz, as a former civil rights activist in the GDR, speaks so clearly, he takes it very seriously. Apparently Vaatz “stung a wasp's nest”.

Other social activities

Vaatz was a member of the radio council of Deutschlandradios from 1997 to 2002 . He is co-editor of Civis with probe and guest author on the axis of good . He was also a member of the Presidium of the Weikersheim Study Center ; in June 2007 Vaatz canceled his membership in the study center.

Awards

In addition to other civil rights activists, Vaatz was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class on October 8, 1995 for his services to the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR by Federal President Roman Herzog . In 1999 he received the Eugen Bolz Prize. On October 13, 2009 he received the Saxon Order of Merit on the occasion of “20 Years of Peaceful Revolution” . In September 2015, he was honored with the Konrad Adenauer Medal for his services to the free and democratic development of the Free State of Saxony . On October 3, 2018, he received the Scheidegger Peace Prize, with which people are honored for their services to the peaceful revolution in the GDR. He also has the distinction of commander of the French Legion of Honor.

literature

Web links

Commons : Arnold Vaatz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eckhard Jesse (Ed.): Peaceful Revolution and German Unity: Saxon civil rights activists take stock , Ch. Links Verlag, 2006; Page 265 ISBN 978-3861533795
  2. ↑ State Commissioner of the Free State of Thuringia to come to terms with the SED dictatorship (ThLA): Forced Labor in Thuringia from October 20, 2015
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundestag.de
  4. ↑ http://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/Arnold+Vaatz/0/19765.html
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cdu-landesgruppe-sachsen.de
  6. ^ Güter Hoffmann: Assault on the Stasi in Saxony . GNN, Schkeuditz 2004, ISBN 3-89819-165-6 , p. 21 .
  7. ↑ Report of the Auditor meeting of the BPP in Nuremberg on April 18, 2015. bpp.de, May 5, 2015 accessed on 17 June 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b treason everywhere . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1996, pp. 70 ( online ).
  9. ↑ Biedenkopf should make room for successors. In: Spiegel online. May 16, 2000, accessed January 2, 2011 .
  10. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : The totalitarian elites ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 16, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arnold-vaatz-mdb.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arnold-vaatz-mdb.de
  11. ↑ http://www.kulturstiftung-sachsen.de:/ Press release of the Saxon Cultural Senate ( memento of October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), April 5, 2007
  12. ↑ Second prominent CDU exit in the dispute over Waldschlößchenbrücke ( memento of October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), April 4, 2007.
  13. ↑ Arnold Vaatz: Civil rights activist and repeatedly controversial CDU veteran , MDR 2020
  14. ↑ Union parliamentary group vice called the energy transition "nonsensical" . In: Die Welt , July 18, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
  15. ^ Article for EIKE - European Institute for Climate and Energy: MP Arnold Vaatz on the energy transition, its reasons and consequences! ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Arnold Vaatz's website. Retrieved July 18, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arnold-vaatz-mdb.de
  16. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/cdu-csu-fraktionsvize-arnold-vaatz-die-afd-ist-nicht-der-ku-klux-klan/10639264.html
  17. ↑ Markus Decker: "Marriage for Everyone" CDU politician compares homosexuals with guide dogs , Hamburger Morgenpost from July 6, 2017
  18. ↑ https://www.deutschewildtierstiftung.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilung-des-praesidiums
  19. ↑ Wildtier Stiftung collateral damage from expulsion , by Ansgar Graw , Die Welt December 22, 2019
  20. ↑ Die Zeit: SPD and Greens criticize Union parliamentary group vice , from August 7, 2020
  21. ↑ Focus Online: Top man of the Union faction shocked with crude conspiracy theories , August 7, 2020
  22. ↑ Die Welt: Police Union criticizes Union faction vice for GDR comparison , August 7, 2020
  23. ↑ CDU politician defends Arnold Vaatz , Zeit Online, August 8, 2020
  24. ↑ Tagesspiegel: Arnold Vaatz's flirtation with the corona deniers , from August 6, 2020
  25. ↑ Die Welt: Corona demo in Berlin: CDU politician defends Vaatz's criticism of the police , August 8, 2020.
  26. ^ Author profile and articles by Arnold Vaatz on the axis of the good .
  27. ↑ Biography of Vaatz ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on arnold-vaatz-mdb.de. Retrieved August 25, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arnold-vaatz-mdb.de
  28. ↑ Orders do not have to be silenced. In: world. October 9, 1995, accessed January 2, 2011 .
  29. ^ Eugen Bolz Foundation: Eugen Bolz Prize holder
  30. ↑ Saxon State Chancellery: October 13, 2009 - Award of the Saxon Order of Merit ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ministerpraesident.sachsen.de
  31. ↑ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: Democracy and Freedom - 70 years of the CDU in Germany, ceremony with Prof. Bernhard Vogel in the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden on September 18, 2015
  32. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.westallgaeu.de  
  33. ↑ https://www.pressreader.com/germany/der-westallg%C3%A4uer/20180630/282647508261262
  34. ^ Entry Arnold Vaatz at Who's who-the people lexicon
personal data
SURNAME Vaatz, Arnold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vaatz, Arnold Eugen Hugo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Weida , Gera-Land district , GDR