David Lange

David Lange

David Russell Lange (born August 4, 1942 in Thames , † August 13, 2005 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand politician , Prime Minister of New Zealand (1984-1989) and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award ("Alternative Nobel Prize ").

Life

David Lange, whose ancestors came from Bremen on his father's side , grew up in a Methodist family and was strongly influenced by the social goals of the Methodist Church . He studied law at the University of Auckland and after graduating in 1966 worked temporarily in London for the Methodist Central Mission and was also active as a Methodist lay preacher . Between 1970 and 1977 he worked as a lawyer in Auckland, where he a. a. became known for representing poor clients for free. After he ran initially unsuccessfully in 1975, he was elected to the Labor Party in the House of Representatives of the New Zealand Parliament in 1977, where he was opposition leader in 1983 as the successor to Bill Rowling .

In 1984 he was elected to succeed Robert Muldoon as the youngest Prime Minister in the country's history and also held the post of Foreign Minister until 1987 . In the 1987 elections, the Labor government was confirmed with a growing majority. Lange became known internationally primarily for his campaign for a nuclear weapon-free zone and against nuclear tests in the Pacific. As part of this policy, there were diplomatic conflicts with the USA in 1985/86 when the Lange government imposed a ban on ships carrying nuclear weapons and propulsion, and New Zealand was subsequently excluded from the ANZUS pact . Domestically, the reign Long was mainly due to one of privatization and removal of subsidies dominated monetarist dominated economic policy, with the previous Keynesian , on the expansion of the welfare state -oriented policies of Labor broke.

In 1989, after a series of internal party conflicts, he resigned from his post as Prime Minister in favor of Geoffrey Palmer , was Attorney General from 1989 to 1990 and gave up his seat in Parliament in 1996 for health reasons.

In 2003 David Lange received the Right Livelihood Award for his work against nuclear weapons.

In the 1990s Lange's health deteriorated significantly due to diabetes and kidney problems , mainly caused by being overweight. In 2002 he was diagnosed with amyloidosis , a rare and incurable blood plasma disease . On August 2, 2005, his right foot was amputated because of diabetes complications. Lange died in Auckland's Middlemoore Hospital due to kidney failure on August 13, 2005. The David Lange Memorial Trust erected a memorial in his honor in Otahuhu.

Web links

Commons : David Lange  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official Biography of the New Zealand Government (English)
• Obituary in the Guardian (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Lange's Christian aura ( Memento of October 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) - Methodist Church of New Zealand - Original website no longer available, link to WaybackMachine of October 18, 2008.
2. ↑ Julie Middleton : I'd rather lose a leg than my life, says Lange . New Zealand Herald - Online Edition , August 4, 2005, accessed May 29, 2012 .  
3. ↑ David Lange . David Lange Memorial Trust , accessed May 29, 2012 .