Ralph Lange

Ralph Lange (* 1967 ) is a German politician ( FDP ). From 1993 to 1995 he was federal chairman of the Young Liberals (JuLis).

Lange obtained his university entrance qualification at the Andreas-Vesalius-Gymnasium Wesel and studied mathematics and computer science in Düsseldorf from 1987 to 1996. In March 1993 he was elected federal chairman and successor to Birgit Homburger at the 7th Federal JuLis Congress in Essen .

With Lange at the helm, the criticism and distance to the mother party, the FDP, intensified considerably, especially since Lange was not, like Homburg, a member of the Bundestag faction and thus obliged to other loyalties. The JuLis criticized the "fallers" of the FDP in long-term care insurance and the attempts by a large part of the parliamentary group around the legal politician Detlef Kleinert to prepare the FDP for the "great eavesdropping". Lange also took massive action against national liberal tendencies in the FDP, in particular against Alexander von Stahl and the Hessian state parliament member Heiner Kappel . Against the resistance of Otto Graf Lambsdorff , but with the support of Hans-Dietrich Genscher , the FDP federal executive board, at Lange's request, decided to support the exclusion of the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria from the Liberal International .

While Langes JuLis initially celebrated the election of Klaus Kinkel as federal chairman of the FDP, they soon moved him more and more into the center of their criticism, including in human rights policy. When the then Chinese Prime Minister was on a state visit to Germany in 1994, the JuLis, led by Lange and his press spokeswoman Silvana Koch-Mehrin , demonstrated with a statue of liberty on Lake Tegernsee . The Prime Minister then canceled this part of the state visit.

Before the 1994 federal election , criticism of the FDP leadership within the youth organization did not decrease, but the desire for a united appearance towards political opponents increased. During this time, the public took less notice of his involvement in the federal election campaign than of his criticism of Kinkel. A few days before the election, Lange formulated a kind of six percent hurdle in a press conference: If Kinkel missed this, he would have to resign as FDP leader.

After the federal election, Lange's speech at the FDP federal party conference in Gera Kinkel's dismantling reinforced the mood of the delegates. Wolfgang Gerhardt was already available as his successor. After the intervention of large parts of the party leadership and also of the party left (so-called Freiburg Circle ), Kinkel narrowly won the vote of confidence and remained in office for six months.

At the 10th federal congress in Bad Salzuflen, the young liberals elected Michael Kauch as federal chairman, who adopted a more diplomatic tone.

Lange was also a list candidate of his party for the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1990 and Wesel local politician - u. a. as FDP district chairman. Ralph Lange now lives as a freelance programmer in Frankfurt am Main , where he is deputy chairman of the FDP.

Web links

• Personal appearance on Xing (with picture), Facebook , Google Plus , Twitter and Youtube .

supporting documents

1. ↑ On the person. Ralph Lange. PDF. In: Landtag internal , publication by the North Rhine-Westphalian Landtag, March 9, 1993, p. 24.
2. ↑ Personal details : Ralph Lange. In: Der Spiegel , January 9, 1995.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ex-July boss sees no left vacuum in the FDP. In: Die Welt , September 1, 2014.
4. ↑ In addition almost 25 years of Young Liberals. ( Memento of June 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Freiheit.org .
5. ↑ FDP leadership under severe party congress criticism. The grassroots uprising sparked a debate about Kinkel's resignation. In: Berliner Zeitung , December 12, 1994.
6. ↑ NRW election 1990: Reserve lists of the state parliament parties. PDF. In: Landtag Intern , publication by the North Rhine-Westphalian Landtag, May 2, 1990, p. 14.