Henning Scherf

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Henning Scherf

Henning Scherf (born October 31, 1938 in Bremen ) is a German politician ( SPD ). From 1978 to 2005 he was a member of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and served as Mayor and President of the Senate from 1995 . Previously, Scherf was a member of the Bremen citizenship and chairman of the Bremen SPD. Since leaving politics, he has been active as an author and in numerous honorary positions .

Life

family

Scherf grew up with his six siblings in Bremen Neustadt , where their father ran a drugstore. Three siblings come from the father's first marriage, including the economist Harald Scherf . The father married a second time; three sons were born in the marriage, including Henning Scherf. During the Second World War , the family was bombed twice and moved to live with their grandparents in Osterholz-Scharmbeck on Teichstrasse. It was not until 1948 that the family was able to return to Osterstrasse in Bremer Neustadt.

Scherf is married to Luise Scherf and together they have three children and nine grandchildren. A daughter-in-law is Julia Scherf from Hamburg, a judge in the Itzehoe judicial district and TV presenter. Henning Scherf lives with his wife in a senior citizens' flat-sharing community in downtown Bremen, which he founded in 1987 with ten friends and which he describes as the "family of choice". He promotes this kind of coexistence and recommends it as an opportunity for an aging society.

2016 he took over in the play Terror by Ferdinand von Schirach , the role of the judge.

education and profession

After graduating from high school in 1958, Scherf studied law and sociology at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and at the Free University of Berlin . During his studies he was supported by the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst . In 1968 Scherf received his doctorate. jur. with a topic to clarify § 73 BSHG . He then worked as a lawyer in Bremen until 1971 .

politics

Scherf has been a member of the SPD since 1963. From 1972 to 1978 he was state chairman of the SPD Bremen . From 1984 to 1999 he was a member of the federal executive committee of the SPD. From October 13, 1971 to September 27, 1978 Scherf was a member of the Bremen citizenship . In the following seven citizenship elections, he was re-elected to the citizenship, but was prevented from exercising his mandate due to the incompatibility of the Senate Office and the citizenship mandate according to Article 108 of the state constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . When he left the Senate in 2005, he renounced the mandate last acquired in the 2003 state election and withdrew from state politics.

Member of the Senate

On September 27, 1978, Henning Scherf was elected to the Senate for the first time by the Bremen Parliament. He held many offices under the presidents of the Senate Hans Koschnick (SPD, until 1985) and Klaus Wedemeier (SPD, 1985 to 1995):
From September 1978 to November 1979 he was Senator for Finance as the successor to Karl-Heinz Jantzen (SPD ); his successor was Moritz Thape (SPD).
After that he was Senator for Social Affairs, Youth and Sport and for Youth and Social Affairs until February 1990 as the successor to Walter Franke (SPD); his successor was Sabine Uhl (SPD) ..
At the same time, he was Klaus Wedemeier's representative as mayor from September 1985 to December 1991.
From October 1987 to January 1988 he was acting Senator for Health as successor to Herbert Brückner (SPD); his successor was Vera Rüdiger (SPD) ..
From February 1990 to July 1995 he was Senator for Education, Science and Art and for Education and Science as the successor to Horst Werner Franke (SPD); his successor was Bringfriede Kahrs (SPD).
From December 1991 to November 2005 he was also Senator for Justice and Constitution.

In 1980 he turned against a solemn pledge by the Bundeswehr in the Weser Stadium . Serious street battles broke out on the fringes of the celebration. Scherf was accused of having participated in the demonstration. He himself said he stood “between the lines” to mediate between protesters and police.

President of the Senate

After Klaus Wedemeier no longer made himself available as President of the Senate after the disappointing performance of the SPD in the 1995 mayor elections, the preliminary decision of the successor lay with the members of the Bremen SPD. In a strike vote , Scherf prevailed against the former head of the Bremen Senate Chancellery, Hans-Helmut Euler. Although Scherf, in contrast to Euler , had spoken out in favor of a red-green coalition in Bremen, the SPD members voted for a coalition with the CDU in a parallel survey. On July 4, 1995 he was elected President of the Senate and Mayor and was also the Senator for Church Affairs . He formed the grand coalition of the SPD and CDU , which ruled until 2007, and soon gained a reputation for being a vehement supporter of cooperation with the CDU. Scherf was also Senator for Justice and the Constitution, and from March 2003 until the end of his term in office he was also the chairman of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat .

As mayor, Scherf strove for a consensus-oriented and citizen-oriented political style. His personal popularity ratings were high and, according to surveys, were well above those of his party and his government. As a result, they contributed to the fact that the SPD was able to improve in the 1999 general election, contrary to the national trend, from 33.4 percent to 42.6 percent of the votes.

In the 2003 general election , Scherf linked the SPD's performance with his political fate. He announced that he would only continue to be politically active if the SPD won an election. The SPD won the election with 42.3 percent of the vote, the only SPD victory in 2003 amid a series of defeats in other state elections.

Among other things, Scherf's campaign tactics included a deliberate demarcation from the then Federal Chancellor and SPD chairman Gerhard Schröder , who was at a low in popularity at the time: Scherf refrained from campaigning together with Schröder, and the political comments after the Bremen election said it several times that the SPD triumphed here “in spite of” Schröder.

During Scherf's tenure in 2004, the subsidized Space Park Bremen was built . The facility closed unsuccessfully in the same year and became a shopping center in 2008. The national debt continued to rise during Scherf's tenure.

In November 2005, Scherf resigned as head of government. He asserted personal reasons for leaving. The Bremen citizenship elected the former SPD parliamentary group leader Jens Böhrnsen as his successor .

Drug policy

In 1989 the Bremen citizens voted "[g] egen the resolute resistance of Mayor [...] Henning Scherf" for the expansion of drug substitution . “The Senate was asked to develop an inter-departmental concept for a reoriented drug policy in Bremen”. According to prison doctor Klaus-Jürgen Fritsch, Scherf was “initially not a fan of substitution”, but he “just saw that there was no other way” and then commissioned Fritsch to create a methadone program in the early 1990s. With the program, Bremen was "among the first" and was able to achieve "good results" and "take the pressure off the boiler".

In 1992, Scherf created the legal basis for the emetic procedure for securing evidence in drug smuggling. Scherf defended this practice when the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court ruled in 1996 that “the unlawful forcible administration of emetics violates the obligation to protect human dignity and the general personality rights of the accused”. After Laya-Alama Condé died in Bremen at the turn of 2004/2005, the use of emetics was ended. Almost 12 years later, Scherf regretted his behavior and called the emetic practice a mistake.

Political style

Scherf showed great closeness to the citizen. He was very direct with the citizens and was often out and about in the city center on foot or by bike (always without police protection), and it was quite possible to speak to him directly or from him with the words “Yes, I am Your Mayor! ”To be addressed. His popularity was fueled by this closeness and personal humility.

But he was legendary for the frequent, warm hugs of his citizens and fellow human beings, not only as a “grandma smooch”, but also tended to attack those who think differently and “sometimes make incorrect statements” - “partly to ward off criticism , partly because he does not know the exact facts ”; he himself described it as his mistake, “that I can be unjust and impatient”.

Other offices

Honors

Fonts

  • The compulsory placement of people at risk according to the Federal Social Welfare Act: For a more detailed specification of Section 73 (2) BSHG , Hamburg 1970, DNB 482078006 , (Dissertation University of Hamburg, Faculty of Law, February 13, 1970, XXXII, 132 pages).
  • as editor, with Rolf G. Heinze : Sozialstaat 2000. On the way to new foundations of social security, a discussion volume. (= Research Institute of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation , series: work . Volume 20). Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1988, ISBN 3-87831-453-1 .
  • Gray is colorful: what is possible in old age . Herder , Freiburg im Breisgau 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-28593-6 .
  • Visiting strange friends. A trip around the world à la Scherf. Radius, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-87173-102-0 .
  • In flight over Bremen, Bremerhaven and the surrounding area . Hinstorff, Rostock 2008, ISBN 978-3-356-01228-6 .
  • Together instead of alone. My experiences for the future . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2009, ISBN 978-3-451-30255-8 .
  • Age comes my way. Life concepts today for tomorrow (together with Ilse Biberti). Südwest-Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-517-08527-2 .
  • Those who look ahead stay young longer. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2012, ISBN 978-3-451-33257-9 .
  • Age journey . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-06487-6 .
  • More life - why young and old belong together. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-30912-0 .
  • with Annelie Keil : The last taboo. Talk about dying and learn to live the farewell . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2016, ISBN 978-3-451-34926-3 .

In his highly acclaimed book Grau ist bunt: What is possible in old age (2007), Scherf promotes a changed approach to old people. He contradicts the theses in the bestseller The Methuselah plot by Frank Schirrmacher, the FAZ editor at the time . In the generation of the elderly, Scherf sees the “classic voluntary basis” of our society, because whoever turns 60 today has an average of 30 years to live: “30 years in wonderful conditions, because we have a pension that nourishes us, because we suddenly have time, because we are still fit, because we can still be interested, because we can still participate, without always asking: Will I get the right salary for it? "

See also

Web links

Commons : Henning Scherf  - Collection of Images
 Wikinews: Henning Scherf  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Volker Mauersberger: Henning Scherf, Between Power and Moral - A Political Biography. Edition Temmen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-369-6 .
  2. ↑ Moderator Julia Scherf. In: Facebook. Retrieved December 17, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Harald Czycholl: It doesn't have to be the senior citizens' home. WeltN24 GmbH, September 7, 2015, accessed on December 17, 2016 .
  4. ^ Henning Scherf: All under one roof. In: ver.di Publik, issue 10 (special): Generations. October 13, 2010, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Uwe Dammann: Terror with Henning Scherf. In: Weser courier. May 10, 2016, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  6. ^ Stefan Lüddemann: Henning Scherf as a judge on the theater stage. In: Osnabrück newspaper. May 18, 2016, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Magdi Aboul-Kheir: Bremen's former mayor Hennig Scherf makes "terror" on the theater stage. In: Südwestpresse. May 20, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Anja Schulze: Between Hope and Hopelessness. (PDF; 1.4 MB) 10 years of substitution in the Bremen penal system. In: Volume 7 of the series "Health Promotion in Prison". R. Meyenberg, H. Stöver, J. Jacob, 2001, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Justus Wilhelm: "I was the freest man in jail". In: Weser courier. December 10, 2012, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  10. ↑ No excuse for torture. In: taz . September 16, 2013, accessed April 10, 2018 .
  11. ↑ OLG Frankfurt / M., Judgment of 11.10.1996 AZ 1 Ss 28/96; NJW 1997, 1647. In: jurathek.de. Michael Hettenbach & Undine Haberecht GbR, archived from the original on May 25, 2016 ; Retrieved May 25, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau Online from January 2, 2017: Scherf regrets the use of emetics .
  13. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: "I get whole town halls full". In: Der Tagesspiegel. November 1, 2013, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: Shining light with shadowy sides. In: The Parliament. December 29, 2003.
  15. ^ Association and Board of Directors | Pan y Arte - Bread and Art for Nicaragua. Retrieved July 10, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Henning Scherf stands for solidarity aid. Bethel Children's and Youth Hospice, accessed on December 17, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Sieling new to the supervisory board. In: Weser courier. March 29, 2014, accessed December 17, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Board of Trustees. forum thomanum Leipzig e. V., accessed December 17, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Bremen Medal of Honor in gold for Henning Scherf. senatspressestelle.bremen.de, November 7, 2018, accessed on November 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Scherf, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen