Erhard Eppler

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Erhard Eppler (2013)

Erhard Eppler (* 9. December 1926 in Ulm , † 19th October 2019 in Schwäbisch Hall ) was a German politician of the SPD . In the 1970s and 1980s he held various leadership positions in the SPD and was Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation from 1968 to 1974 . From 1961 to 1976 he was a member of the Bundestag, then until 1982 of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament . In addition, after his political career he was active in the area of ​​the Protestant Church, including several times as the President of the Church Congress, and was one of the outstanding personalities of the peace movement of the 1980s.

He was regarded as a prominent representative of the left wing of the party of the SPD, however, supported the reforms of Agenda 2010 , the Kosovo war and the Afghanistan deployment of the Bundeswehr as part of NATO . In March 2014 he criticized the course of the West against Russia because of the Crimean crisis in Ukraine and at the same time turned against the "demonization" of Vladimir Putin .

Life, education and work

Erhard Eppler was born in Ulm and grew up in Schwäbisch Hall , where his father, Richard Eppler, head of the Mergenthaler secondary school, and his mother Hildegard Eppler, was the first female city councilor. From 1943 to 1945 Eppler took part in World War II as a soldier . In a conversation with the post-growth economist Niko Paech , Eppler talked about the circumstances and how he found his way back home immediately after the World War with the thoughts that determined his future life :

“At that time I had to walk from Lüneburg to my hometown Schwäbisch Hall, wrapped in rags because I had exchanged my uniform on a farm. I had a lot of time to think along the way, and that's when I realized that politics is always about life and death - directly or indirectly. A terrible policy had destroyed an entire continent and cost an infinite number of people their lives. But that also meant for me: Responsible politics can ensure that this doesn't happen again. "

- What you are planning would be a revolution ...: A debate about growth, politics and an ethics of enough (2016)

In 1946 Eppler passed the Abitur at the grammar school near St. Michael and completed a teaching degree for English , German and history in Frankfurt am Main, Bern and Tübingen , which he completed in 1951 with the first and in 1953 with the second exam for the higher teaching post. In 1951 at the University of Tuebingen its graduation to the Dr. phil. with the work The Rebellious and the Desperate as the heroic figure of the Elizabethan tragedy . Until 1961 he worked as a teacher at the grammar school in Schwenningen am Neckar . Eppler lived in Schwäbisch Hall. After Horst Ehmke's death , Eppler was the last living member of the Kiesinger government . He died on October 19, 2019 at the age of 92.

Party memberships

Erhard Eppler at the SPD Federal Party Congress in Hanover (1973)
Erhard Eppler at the SPD federal party conference 2015 in Berlin

Eppler became a member of the NSDAP in September 1943 at the age of 16. He later described this step as a “stupid thing”, but he also said: “I did not come on a list against my will, I accepted it. That's how it was back then. "

In 1952 he joined the All-German People's Party (GVP) founded by Gustav Heinemann and Helene Wessel , but, like most GVP members, switched to the SPD in 1956. From 1970 to 1991 he was a member of the federal executive committee, from 1973 to 1989 a member of the presidium (except for 1982–1984) and from 1973 to 1992 chairman of the SPD basic values ​​commission . Since then he has been an honorary member of the commission.

From 1973 to 1981 he was state chairman of the SPD in Baden-Württemberg . In the state elections in 1976 and 1980 he was the SPD's top candidate for the office of Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, but could not prevail against the incumbent Hans Filbinger (1976) and Lothar Späth (1980).

MP

From 1961 to 1976 Eppler was a member of the German Bundestag , from 1972 with a direct mandate in the Heilbronn constituency . From 1976 he was a member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg for the constituency of Rottweil , where he was chairman of the SPD parliamentary group until 1980 . On June 30, 1982 he resigned from his office. His successor was Klaus Haischer .

Public offices

On October 16, 1968, Erhard Eppler was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation in the Federal Government led by Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger . He kept this office under Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt . After Brandt's resignation in May 1974, he initially also belonged to the cabinet headed by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt . He resigned because of significant cuts in the budget provided for his ministry and was replaced by Egon Bahr on July 8, 1974 .

Social Commitment

Gesine Schwan and Erhard Eppler, 2015

After his withdrawal from federal politics, Erhard Eppler devoted himself more to his work in the Evangelical Church in Germany . Among other things, he was President of the Church Congress from 1981 to 1983 and from 1989 to 1991.

He was a member of the Protestant Academic Union in Germany and the PEN Center Germany . In 1977 Eppler was a founding member of the civil rights movement " Gustav Heinemann Initiative ", which was absorbed into the Humanist Union in 2009 . Eppler was also a member of the Öko-Institut's board of trustees .

Political positions

Tax policy

After Alex Möller , first finance minister of the social-liberal coalition, announced a tax reform as a “work of the century” at the Saarbrücken party congress of the SPD in May 1970 , but did not take any concrete steps, the SPD party executive commissioned a committee to chair it in June 1970 Epplers, at that time development aid minister, with the development of a program. The working group dealt with this program for around a year without the government or the public paying any attention. That changed in November 1971 with the SPD's tax party conference. Eppler and his commission saw tax policy as a lever for social change. In the post-war period, according to Eppler, prosperity increased, but mainly in private hands. It is now important to dedicate oneself to community tasks, such as the expansion of kindergartens, schools, universities, health care or local public transport. The scope of state action should therefore be expanded - financed by taxes. The party congress called for a significant increase in the top tax rate to 60 percent and an increase in corporation tax to 56 percent. Karl Schiller , then Federal Minister for Economics and Finance, remained isolated at the tax party conference with his criticism of these clear increase plans.

Peace policy

Eppler was considered one of the exponents of the left wing of the party within the SPD. Helmut Schmidt commented on Eppler's work in the federal government and the SPD with the verdict that he was a "man who never won elections". However, during Gerhard Schröder's second term in office , Eppler supported the reform projects of the red-green federal government, such as Agenda 2010 . In addition, Eppler, who in the 1980s still supported the peace movement and, as the main promoter of the SPD turn against the NATO double resolution, had contributed to the overthrow of Schmidt (1982), expressly advocated the foreign policy course of the red-green federal government under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder and approved the intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and the Afghanistan mission of the Bundeswehr (2001-2014).

Russia policy

In 2007, Heinrich August Winkler cited Eppler's statement "Compared to Stalin's purges and Hitler's racial madness, Putin's controlled democracy is extremely humane" as an example of a false standard. In March 2014, Eppler criticized the course of the West against Russia because of the Crimean crisis in Ukraine . He turned against a "demonization" of Vladimir Putin . He believes that no Russian president has patiently watched as a "clearly anti-Russian government in Kiev tries to lead Ukraine towards NATO".

In July 2015 he opposed Vittorio Hösle's thesis that Putin was following a short life plan for Russia's expansion in the Blätter für Deutschen und Internationale Politik . He used examples to show that Putin did not openly intervene in Ukraine right away. There is therefore no plan for expansion, but it is clear that it is about the protection of military interests. “What would have happened to the fleet if they had found a reason to terminate the lease contract in Kiev at some point?” A “brutally anti-Russian Ukraine” would have to expect “that something would crumble on the eastern and southern fringes”, and Ukraine would have "Enmity towards Russia was raised as a raison d'etat". Only the EU and Russia together could rehabilitate Ukraine. And to Russia he said, “A people who can only see themselves as a humiliated victim are not capable of peace. Incidentally, this also applies today to a small, brave people in the Middle East. "This feeling of humiliation can only be overcome through" the obvious integration of this people into the community of peoples, "the recognizable respect for their history and achievements. A danger for the future - apart from the incalculable consequences of replacing the rationally acting Putin - is "when European arrogance, combined with American whisperings, pushes Russia where it actually does not want to: to the side of China." A particular failure occurs On the German side, he saw the inability of the German government and the media to perceive and take into account unpleasant facts on the Ukrainian side. Europe must recognize that those of the USA are not its own interests.

In August 2016, he repeated his interpretation of a "demonstration of superiority" by NATO in the eastward expansion, to which Russia reacted defensively. For the keen observer, it is Ukraine's turn to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but this is being concealed. Ukraine does not have the same deficits in terms of democracy as Russia, but not less overall. "In fact, stubborn opposition to the government's course in Ukraine is no less safe than in Russia, especially since Ukraine still lacks a real characteristic of the sovereign state: the monopoly of force." It is precisely the inability of civilization to cope with the threat from IS, show how important the cooperation between the USA and Russia is. In view of this, an arms race seems unintentionally funny.

European politics

In a speech on the “Weimar Speeches” in 2012, Eppler called for more solidarity in Europe and stated that using the principle of competition to advance the EU “was and is a crazy idea”. Competition between the EU nations leads to "that the states are chasing investments from each other through ever lower corporate taxes" and gives rise to greater mistrust. Anyone who complains about re-nationalization could find an important reason here.

Quote

Erhard Eppler 2002

Questioned on the topics of ecology, energy transition and peace policy:

"If you come too early, the party friends will punish you."

- Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 257 of 7./8. November 2015, p. 58

Commentary in the documentary Let Feather - From the Third World to the Global South by Gaby Weber on the subject of poverty, flight and migration:

"At the beginning of the 70s I always said, folks, if we stop doing things for Africa, then we will come under immigration pressure that can turn us into a police state , but nobody has listened."

- Documentary "Let Feathers - From the Third World to the Global South" by Gaby Weber, October 2017

honors and awards

Publications

  • 1961: Liberal and Social Democracy. On Friedrich Naumann's political legacy. (28 p.) Ring-Verlag, Villingen 1961, DNB 451130790 .
  • 1968: areas of tension. Contributions to the politics of our time. (284 pages) Seewald-Verlag, Stuttgart 1968, DNB 456551123 .
  • 1971: Little time for the Third World. (136 p.) Verlag W. Kohlhammer , Stuttgart 1971. Urban-Taschenbuch, DNB 720042437 .
  • 1974: Standards for a humane society. Standard of living or quality of life? (101 pages) Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-17-001903-1 .
  • 1975: the end or the turning point. From the feasibility of the necessary. (165 p.) Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1975. DTV, 1976 to 1981, ISBN 3-423-01221-8 .
  • 1981: Ways out of danger. About the NATO double resolution 1979, 240 pages, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1981 to 1985, ISBN 3-498-01622-9 .
  • 1982: with Michael Ende and Hanne Tächl: Fantasy, Culture, Politics. Protocol of a conversation. (143 pages) Weitbrecht, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-522-70020-1 .
  • 1983: The deadly utopia of security. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1983, ISBN 3-498-01631-8 .
  • 1986: Objections. Evidence of a political biography. Edited by A. Bregenzer, W. Brinkel and G. Erler . Dreisam, Freiburg / B. 1986, ISBN 3-89125-239-0 .
  • 1990: Speeches on the Republic. German Political Texts 1952–1990. Edited by Wolfgang Brinkel . Kaiser, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-459-01857-7 .
  • 1990: Platform for a new majority. A commentary on the SPD's Berlin program. Dietz, Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-8012-0158-9 . (PiT, Vol. 1, DNB 017232538 ).
  • 1992: Cavalry horses at the horn signal. The crisis of politics in the mirror of language. (Edition Suhrkamp 1788 = NF 788) Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-11788-2 .
  • 1994: When Truth Was Ordained. Letters to my granddaughter. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-458-16640-8 .
  • 1996: Complete piecework. Fifty years of experience in politics. (299 pages) Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-458-16770-6 .
  • 1998: The return of politics. (310 pages) Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-458-16925-3 .
  • 2000: Privatization of Political Morality? (Edition Suhrkamp, ​​Standpunkte, 2185) Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-12185-5 .
  • 2000: What do people need? Vision: Politics in the service of basic needs. (205 pages) Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-593-36041-1 .
  • 2002: From the monopoly of violence to the market of violence. The privatization and commercialization of violence. Edition Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-12288-6 .
  • 2005: obsolete model? (Edition Suhrkamp 2462) Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-518-12462-5 .
  • 2008: A party for the second decade: the SPD? (90 pages) Vorwärts-Buch, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86602-175-4 .
  • 2009: Watching politics on the mouth. Small dictionary for public use. (193 pages) Dietz, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-8012-0397-9 .
  • 2011: A solidarity performance society. Change of epoch after the embarrassment of the market liberals. Dietz, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8012-0422-8 .
  • 2015: Living left. Memories of a value conservative. (335 pages) Propylaen-Verlag, 2015, ISBN 3-549-07465-4 . Ullstein-eBooks, Berlin 2015, DNB 1078018715 .
  • 2016: with Niko Paech : What you are planning would be a revolution. A debate about growth, politics and an ethics of enough. oekom, Munich 2016, ISBN 3-86581-835-8 .
  • 2018: Trump - and what are we doing? The anti-politician and the dignity of the political. (128 pages) Dietz, Bonn 2018, ISBN 978-3-8012-0529-4 .

literature

  • Kurt E. Becker et al. (Ed.): Erhard Eppler. The peace movement - a conversation. (Series: "Frankenthaler Talks") PVA, Landau 1982, ISBN 3-87629-024-4 .
  • Christine Simon: Erhard Eppler's Germany and Ostpolitik. Dissertation, University of Bonn, 2004, DNB 970742177 .
  • Wolfgang Bittner , Mark vom Hofe (ed.): I get involved. Striking German résumés. Experienced stories. Horlemann, Bad Honnef 2006, ISBN 3-89502-222-5 . In it from p. 64: The homecoming: memory of the end of the war. Erhard Eppler. A WDR (5) book.
  • Renate Faerber-Husemann: The lateral thinker. Erhard Eppler. A biography. Dietz, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-8012-0402-0 .
  • Michael Bohnet : History of German Development Policy. Strategies, interior views, contemporary witnesses, challenges. UVK 2015, ISBN 3-8252-4320-6 , pp. 65-78.
  • Paul Dieterich: Erhard Eppler: Life, Thinking & Working: a biography until the turning point 1989. denkhaus Verlag, Nürtingen, 2018, ISBN 978-3-930998-67-8 .

Web links

Commons : Erhard Eppler  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erhard Eppler and Niko Paech: What you are planning would be a revolution ... A debate about growth, politics and an ethics of enough. oekom, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-96006-166-3 (quotation from chapter 4, page 172).
  2. ↑ Record of his dissertation on d-nb.info (accessed on August 9, 2019).
  3. ↑ Some of the happiest years of my life. (PDF; 125 kB) In: Neckarquelle Extra. November 17, 2007, accessed May 11, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Note in: vorwärts, December 2016 edition, p. 20.
  5. ↑ Bernd Haunfelder : record holder in parliament
  6. ↑ SPD politician Erhard Eppler is dead. Süddeutsche Zeitung from October 19, 2019
  7. ↑ Eppler calls NSDAP application stupid - SPD politician: Journalists only want the headline . Dradio. July 16, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  8. ↑ New prominent names in the NSDAP card index . In: Focus , June 28, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013. 
  9. ↑ Stefan Reinecke: The man who was smarter than his party . In: The daily newspaper: taz . October 21, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 4–5 ( taz.de [accessed on May 28, 2020]).
  10. ^ Öko-Institut: Das Kuratorium , accessed on August 4, 2014.
  11. ↑ See on this: SPD party congress. A nod of the head was enough . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1971 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Hans-Peter Ullmann: The slide into the debt state. Public finances in the Federal Republic from the 1960s to the 1980s . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, p. 154 f, ISBN 978-3-647-30111-2 . Torben Lütjen : Karl Schiller (1911-1994). "Super Minister" Willy Brandts . Dietz, Bonn 2007, pp. 314-319, ISBN 978-3-8012-4172-8 .
  13. ^ Hans-Joachim Noack : Helmut Schmidt. The biography. Rowohlt, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-87134-566-1 , p. 185.
  14. ↑ z. B. Interview with Erhard Eppler: “No politician likes to talk about his powerlessness”. Spiegel Online from October 8, 2004.
  15. ↑ Michael Herkendell: Social Democratic Foreign and Security Policy - a historical classification. In: Ursula Bitzegeio, Rana Deep Islam, Robert Schütte, Lars Winterberg (Eds.): Socially - peaceful - global? Foreign and Security Policy Today: Leading Perspectives, Challenges, Solutions. Series of publications by the scholarship holders of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung . LIT Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12436-4 , p. 43.
  16. ↑ Joachim Scholtyseck : The FDP in the turn. In: Historical-Political Messages. 19, 2013, ISSN  0943-691X , pp. 197-220, here pp. 201f. ( PDF; 71.7 kB ).
  17. ↑ Protocol. Party Congress Bonn. April 12, 1999. Responsibility. ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1 MB) Executive Board of the SPD, Bonn 1999, p. 110.
  18. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler: Zerreisslösungen: Germany, Europe and the West, Verlag CH Beck, 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68425-8
  19. ↑ Putin, Man for Evil. on: sueddeutsche.de , March 11, 2014.
  20. ↑ Erhard Eppler: Humiliation as a Danger . In: Sheets for German and international politics . October 22, 2016, p. 69–77 ( blaetter.de [accessed October 22, 2016]).
  21. ↑ The misunderstood humiliation of the Russians. In: le Bohémien. August 11, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  22. ^ Weimar speeches: Eppler is in favor of less competition. In: Thüringische Landeszeitung. March 10, 2012, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Weimar Speeches 2012: At the Limits of Growth (Part IV / V). In: Thüringische Landeszeitung. March 5, 2012, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  24. ^ Weimar Speeches: Erhard Eppler on the contradictions in the EU. In: Thüringische Landeszeitung. March 5, 2012, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Gaby Weber: Let Feathers - From the Third World to the Global South. October 24, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 43, March 9, 1973.
  27. ↑ bundespraesident.de
  28. ↑ Honorary doctorates. Retrieved November 23, 2019 .
  29. ↑ offenekirchestuttgart.wordpress.com: Brenz Medal for Dr. Erhard Eppler «Open Church Stuttgart , accessed on May 11, 2010.
  30. ^ Baden-Württemberg.de: Honorary title Professor to Dr. Erhard Eppler , accessed November 15, 2014.
  31. ↑ Eppler 1975 (Ende) - Article by Klaus Fürst, 2015: Future III: End or Wende re-examined. in the weekly Friday
  32. ↑ Eppler 1990 - Kaiser-Taschenbücher, Volume 86, with an introductory contribution by Joachim Garstecki.
  33. ↑ Eppler 2005 - This book received the "Political Book 2006" prize from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
  34. ↑ Eppler 2016 - (203 pp.) Moderated by Christiane Grefe.
  35. ↑ Bohnet 2015 - Uni-Taschenbuch (UTB) No. 4320, 284 pp.
personal data
SURNAME Eppler, Erhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pietcong
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (GVP, SPD), MdL, MdB
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH 19th October 2019
Place of death Schwäbisch Hall