Michael Grimminger

Michael Grimminger (* 1960 ) is a German political scientist . He was speechwriter for several Prime Ministers of Baden-Württemberg.

Professional activities

After completing his studies, Grimminger initially worked as an assistant to what he believed to be a Christian-conservative publicist and social philosopher Günter Rohrmoser , editor and publisher of some of his works (including "The emergency case - the crisis of our liberal republic" , "Nietzsche as a diagnostician of the present" , "Germany's tragedy: the spiritual path to National Socialism" , "Spiritual turning point: Christian thinking as the foundation of modern conservatism" ).

In 1995 he submitted his dissertation at the University of Hohenheim .

In 2002 he became a member of the speechwriting team in Department 43 of the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry under the Baden-Württemberg Minister-President Erwin Teufel (CDU) . The presentation was part of Department IV “Principle and planning, social and societal policy, federal affairs” headed by Julian Würtenberger .

He became known to a broader public as the author of Teufel's successor in office Günther Oettinger (CDU) on April 11, 2007 on the occasion of the death of former Prime Minister Hans Filbinger, who was controversial and finally resigned after the war because of his work as a naval judge under National Socialism and his justification for the same (CDU) held funeral speech. In particular, the statement contained in the speech “Hans Filbinger was not a National Socialist. On the contrary: he was an opponent of the Nazi regime ” met with fierce criticism and triggered a nationwide political scandal. The formulations in part by a website founded by Filbinger after his forced resignation study center Weikersheim had been taken were (z. B., among others, many renowned historians Wolfram Wette and Manfred Messerschmidt , Hugo Ott ) as untenable historical misrepresentation and "denigrating of the members of the resistance ”( Hans Mommsen ). Oettinger later had to take it back due to massive pressure from the public and from CDU party leader Angela Merkel .

On April 28, 2007 the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported that Grimminger had meanwhile been transferred to the “Department for Federal Political Issues” within the State Ministry. A transfer to another ministry is being examined.

Works (selection)

In addition to editing and editing various publications by Günter Rohrmoser, the following publications, among others, were made by Michael Grimminger:

• "Revolution and Resignation: Social Philosophy and the Historical Crisis in the 20th Century with Max Horkheimer and Hans Freyer " ; Philosophical Writings, Volume 19; Duncker & Humblot , Berlin, ISBN 3-428-08778-X . At the same time: Dissertation, University of Hohenheim, 1995.
• “A life for Christian liberal democracy” (essay). In: Fred Ludwig Sepaintner (Ed. :) Hans Filbinger - From nine decades (collection of articles); DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen; Karlsruhe, 2003, ISBN 3-87181-536-5 .

References and comments

1. ↑ Rohrmoser: “Without the clever and self-sacrificing editorial editing that my assistant, Michael Grimminger, did, this book would not have been created like this. My heartfelt thanks therefore go to him. " [1]
2. ↑ From the review by Jürgen Neumann, Junge Freiheit , April 12, 2002: “The idea of ​​the editor Michael Grimminger to convey the always stimulating analyzes and theses of his boss Rohrmoser from the lecture form unabridged between two book covers may have its appeal because it wants the reader to participate in the development of the thoughts. At the same time, a prudent editor should have taken care to delete the many repetitions, to remove stylistic hardships (when Rohrmoser speaks of the “state of euthanasia ” of Christianity, but certainly means the “ agony ”) and to eradicate digressions. And of course to correct the factual errors in the transcribed text, which can hardly be avoided in the flow of speech, such as the false statement that Adolf von Harnack was the "court preacher" of Wilhelm II or that Ernst Niekisch and Georg Lukács had worked together in Moscow. " [2]
3. ↑ From the review by Kai Köhler, literaturkritik.de, No. 10, October 2000 (2nd year): “Rohrmoser's colleague Michael Grimminger has composed free presentations“ in the usual careful and successful way into a book ”. Unfortunately, there can be no question of that. Annoying duplications and duplications expand on almost 400 pages, which would have had enough space in a quarter. Digressions, meaningfully illustrated in an oral presentation, destroy the context in the print version. Some of the lectures seem to go back to the eighties or even seventies and are undecidedly updated: For example, the Federal Chancellor Schmidt has to appear as a "former" without the situation assessment of 1977 or 1978 having been fundamentally changed. All this seems carelessly put together, in the fear of meaningful shortening it appears like a kowtow on the vanity of the speaker, so: unpleasant. "
4. ↑ Review of the published dissertation by Andreas Arndt in: "Theologische Literaturzeitung", 124/1999: [3]
5. ↑ Der Spiegel , April 13, 2007 [4]
6. ↑ Confirmation of authorship by government spokesman Christoph Dahl, according to Pforzheimer Zeitung , April 15, 2007 [5]  ( 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. . The speech in full: Der Tagesspiegel , April 13, 2007 [6]  
7. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 16, 2007: "Historians contradict Oettinger" [7]
8. ↑ Kölnische Rundschau , April 16, 2007 [8]
9. ^ Rheinische Post , April 14, 2007 [9]
10. ↑ [10]