Frerich Görts

Frerich Görts (born February 26, 1944 in Detmold ) was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications from 1990 to 1993 and has been spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany since 2005 .

family

Frerich Jakob Emil Görts was born on February 26, 1944 as the eldest son of Frerich J. A. and Christine Görts, née Schumacher, in Detmold in what was then the Free State of Lippe . He has been married to Heidrun Elisabeth Görts, née Gerritzen, since 1969 and lives with his family in Düsseldorf. The couple have a daughter and three sons.

education and profession

After studying political science and law at the universities of Marburg, Geneva and Bonn, Görts was a trainee lawyer at the Düsseldorf Regional Court. He passed his assessor exam in 1973 and in the same year began his professional career as a senior civil servant at the Deutsche Bundespost . From 1981 he was entrusted with various activities (advisor for international advanced training measures at the top management level, cabinet and parliamentary advisor to the Federal Minister) in the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications . In 1985 he became personal advisor and head of the ministerial office of Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling . From January 1, 1990, Görts headed the central department of the Federal Ministry for Post and Telecommunications as Ministerial Director. From May 1990 to August 1993 he was State Secretary there. The reunification of Germany and with it the task of creating a common postal and telecommunications infrastructure fell during this period. From September 1993 to March 1996 he was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Telekom with responsibility for personnel and legal affairs, and under the pressure of what was then the longest strike by the Deutsche Bundespost, he negotiated the transfer of its 600,000 employees to the new joint stock companies. From April 1996 to September 1998 Görts was chairman of the management board of Deutsche Telekom Immobilien und Service GmbH with 13,000 employees and company assets of 13 billion euros. He was removed from his office by the supervisory board because he expressed massive doubts about the correctness of the appreciation of the real estate assets from originally 22.9 billion DM to 35.7 billion DM in the run-up to the IPO of Telekom. A multi-year labor law dispute over reinstatement was unsuccessful. He then worked for various companies as a consultant on current business and business ethics issues. In retirement, he will spend more time working in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Offices and social engagement

During his time as State Secretary, Görts was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Scientific Institute for Communication Services (WIK) in Bad Honnef. During this time he was also President of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administration. As deputy chairman of the board of trustees “ Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunication ”, he was responsible for the multi-million dollar stamp collection of the Federal Republic of Germany until November 1998. Since September 2007 he has been chairman of the "Zur Ludwigsburg" society, founded in 1833, the oldest civil society in Düsseldorf. Görts' true passion is classical and romantic music. He plays (piano) with singers and chamber music ensembles and organizes classical concerts in Düsseldorf.

Church work

Since childhood, Görts has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , commonly known as "Mormons". Parallel to his professional life, Görts performed voluntary church tasks at local and regional level. In addition to other roles, he served twice as bishop in his home ward, Düsseldorf, and as stake president for nine years . From 2001 to 2005 he worked as a church representative for public relations in Germany and played a key role in defining the content and form of the church's German website. From April 2005 to April 2010 Görts was called to the Seventy (third highest level of leadership of the Church worldwide). In this capacity he was responsible for Iceland, Denmark, Hungary and Romania in a leading position. He also serves as the spokesman for the Church in Germany. In addition, since 2005 he has been chairman of the advisory board of the Karl G. Maeser Forum (KMF), the church dialogue forum in the federal capital Berlin. Görts advocates strengthening traditional values ​​and advocates anchoring society in Christianity in the public debate. In April 2006, he described the MTV series “Popetown” as “irreverent defilement of the Christian faith”. In April 2009, Görts commented on the currently discussed demand of various theologians to ban Jesus' sacrificial death from the Christian liturgy and defended the doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In June 2009 he called on Christian churches to “convey the gospel clearly and intelligibly”.

Web links

• Brief biography on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website [4]
• The Museum of Post and Telecommunications [5]

swell

1. ↑ Der Spiegel 20/2003, also online [1]
2. ↑ z. B. here [2]
3. ↑ General Conference April 2005, Officials Approval [3]
4. ↑ http://www.presseportal.de/pm/59373/813550/kirche_jesu_christi_der_heiligen_der_letzt_tage
5. ↑ http://www.mormonen.de/presse/artikelansicht/archiv/2009/april/artikel/kirchenssprecher-frerich-goerts-verteidigt-lehre-vom-suehnopfer-jesu-christi/  ( 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.  
6. ↑ http://www.mormonen.de/presse/artikelansicht/archiv/2009/juni/artikel/kirchenssprecher-frerich-goerts-glueck-keine-glueckssache/  ( 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.