Hans Klein (politician, 1931)

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Hans Klein during an interview in 1990 in Bonn

John "Johnny" Klein (* 11 July 1931 in Šumperk , Czechoslovakia ; † 26. November 1996 in Bonn ) was a German politician of the CSU .

From 1987 to 1989 he was Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation , from 1989 to 1990 Federal Minister for Special Tasks , Head of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, and from 1990 until his death he was Vice President of the German Bundestag .

Life and work

In 1945, as a displaced person from the Sudetenland, Klein came to Heidenheim an der Brenz , where he attended elementary and secondary school. After completing secondary school , Klein completed an apprenticeship as typesetter and a newspaper traineeship. In 1950 he was awarded a scholarship to study economics and history at the Cooperative College of Leicester University in England. From 1953 to 1959 he worked as a journalist ; until 1956 as editor of the Heidenheimer Zeitung , then as Bonn correspondent for the news agency DIMITAG (until 1958) and the Hamburger Abendblatt . In 1959 he joined the Foreign Service. During this time until 1964 he was employed as a press attaché at the German embassies in Jordan , Syria , Iraq and Indonesia . In 1965 he became a press policy advisor to Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard . From 1968 he acted as press officer for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. From 1972 he worked as a freelance journalist. In 1990 he ran for the post of Mayor of Munich , but was clearly defeated by the incumbent Georg Kronawitter in the first ballot .

On November 7, 1996 he suffered a heart attack while traveling on the night train from Munich to Bonn, as a result of which he fell into a coma despite immediate medical attention and died on November 26, 1996.

Klein was married and had three children. His grave is in the Bernau am Chiemsee cemetery .

Party affiliation

Since 1972 he was a member of the CSU .

MP

Klein was a member of the German Bundestag from 1976 until his death . In 1976 and 1987 he won a direct mandate in the constituency of Munich-Mitte, and in the elections of 1980 , 1983 , 1990 and 1994, he entered the Bundestag via the CSU state list . From 1982 to 1987 he was the foreign policy spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group .

Public offices

Small between Waigel and Kohl

After the federal elections in 1987 , he was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation on March 12, 1987 in the Federal Government led by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl . After the cabinet reshuffle in the spring of 1989, he took over the position of Federal Minister for Special Tasks on April 21, 1989 as head of the Federal Government's Press and Information Office. After the Bundestag election in 1990 , he left the federal government in December 1990 and was Vice President of the German Bundestag until his death .

As the spokesman for the federal government, Federal Minister Klein took the view that the members of the Waffen SS simply believed they had to defend their fatherland. The opinion expressed in an interview with the tabloid magazine Quick on May 2, 1989, he repeated at the next press conference. This triggered two motions from the parliamentary groups of the SPD and DIE GRÜNEN, which essentially expected a disapproval of Klein's statements by the Bundestag. The debate on this was held on June 15, 1989 in plenary under Item 18. Klein did not apologize; the opposition's motions were rejected without an exact count.

Others

In 1971 he was the NOK press chief in Kurt Wilhelm's television comedy Olympia-Olympia alongside Beppo Brem , Joachim Fuchsberger and Helga Anders .

Honors

A street in Munich has been named after him since 2002 . Klein was a holder of the Federal Cross of Merit , the Bavarian Order of Merit and numerous foreign medals.

See also

Web links

Commons : Hans Klein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Bohnet : History of German Development Policy: Strategies, Interior Views, Contemporary Witnesses , Challenges , Konstanz / Munich, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft 2015 (utb4320), ISBN 978-3-8252-4320-3 , pp. 125-136
  2. ↑ Article "If that goes in your pants ..." in: DER SPIEGEL from June 19, 1989
  3. ^ [1] Plenary minutes of June 15, 1989, pp. 11085–11094
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klein, Johnny (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CSU). Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Moravian Schönberg , Sudetenland
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1996
Place of death Bonn