Honorary Chairman
An honorary chairman of a political party or an association is someone who has made a special contribution to support and promotion.
The honorary membership can to all these members as well as those natural and legal persons are awarded, who have distinguished themselves through great performance and a long affiliation. The honorary chairmanship can be awarded to board members who have made a special contribution to the association through their unselfish work and commitment.
Honorary members and honorary chairmen, who are not full members at the same time, take part in the board meetings (honorary chairmen) and the general assemblies without voting rights , depending on the present statutes . Honorary membership or honorary chairmanship can only be granted to living persons. It expires at the latest with the death of the honorary member or the honorary chairman.
Political parties in Germany
Currently in Germany the CSU , the AfD and the PARTY have honorary chairmen:
- CSU: Edmund Stoiber was appointed at the party congress on September 29, 2007 right after the election of the new party chairman Erwin Huber . Theodor Waigel was honored accordingly at the party conference on July 18, 2009. Also Horst Seehofer was appointed on 19 January 2019 immediately after his replacement as CSU chairman honorary chairman.
- AfD: Alexander Gauland was elected honorary chairman on December 1, 2019 at the tenth federal party conference in Braunschweig, after the election of his successor as federal spokesman Tino Chrupalla .
- The PARTY: Oliver Maria Schmitt has been honorary chairman since the founding party conference in Münster in 2004.
Former honorary chairmen of a German party were:
- NSDAP : Anton Drexler , who co-founded the DAP and its successor party, the NSDAP, became honorary chairman in 1921 when Adolf Hitler was elected as his successor as party chairman. He stayed that way until 1923.
- SPD : Former Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt was appointed honorary chairman for life by the delegates at the extraordinary party congress on June 14, 1987, and remained so until his death in 1992. On June 9, 1990, the then organizationally separate Eastern SPD elected him Honorary Chairman.
- CDU : Helmut Kohl resigned from the CDU honorary chair due to the CDU donation affair. Until her death, the honorary chairmen were Konrad Adenauer , Jakob Kaiser , Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Georg Kiesinger .
- FDP : Otto Graf Lambsdorff became honorary chairman in 1993 and remained so until his death in 2009. Walter Scheel was honorary chairman of his party from 1979 until his death in 2016, Hans-Dietrich Genscher from 1992 until his death in 2016.
- PDS : Ex-GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow was PDS Honorary Chairman from February 1990 until the PDS was dissolved on June 15, 2007.
- DVU : Fritz von Randow became honorary chairman of the DVU in 1995 and remained so until his death.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation : Important speeches by Willy Brandt , accessed on September 20, 2014.