New Bonn President

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 6

New Bonn President

NZPA-Reuter Bonn Richard von Weizsaecker, an aristocrat and wartime soldier in Hitler’s Heer (Army) was elected West Germany’s sixth President yesterday on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the State’s foundation. Dr von Weizsaecker, aged 64, a member of the Christian Democratic Union, won overwhelming support among the four established parties to take over the five-year, largely ceremonial post. The former Mayor of West Berlin, identified with the liberal wing of the union and a firm supporter of East-West detente, received 832 votes in the Federal Parliamentary Assembly. He will succeed Dr Karl Carstens as President on July 1. As head of State, the President represents the Federal Republic of Germany in its international relations, concludes State treaties, accredits diplomatic representatives, and signs Federal laws. He also has the right of pardon. The President proposes the candidate for the office of Chancellor and appoints him after acceptance by a majority of the Bundestag (lower House). He also appoints and dismisses Ministers at the Chancellor’s suggestion.

Dr von Weizsaecker is seen by many West Germans as the ideal man to bridge the gap between the country’s parties and generations. He has played an important role in improving relations with East Germany and last year had a meeting with the East Ger-

man leader, Erich Honecker. Dr von Weizsaecker was born in Stuttgart and went to school in Berlin. As an Army captain Dr von Weizsaecker was implicated in the abortive attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20,1944, for which 19 of his regimental comrades were executed. After the war he studied for his law doctorate at Oxford and Grenoble, and speaks fluent English and French. At the post-war Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, as a law student, he helped to defend his father, Ernst, a top career diplomat in Hitler's Foreign Ministry, who served two years in jail for his part in the deportation of Jews. He was elected to the Bundestag as a Christian Democratic Union member in 1969 and was Vice-Presi-dent from 1979 to 1981 when he became governing Mayor of West Berlin. Dr von Weizsaecker and his wife, Marianne, have four children. He has been an active Protestant churchman and was president of the German Evangelical Church Assembly from 1964 to 1970. Dr von Weizsaecker visited New Zealand in 1973 as a member of a World Council of Churches delegation.

He recalled his visit when he was host to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, as Mayor of West Berlin in 1982. Sir Robert asked him back to New Zealand, but he has so far been unable to take up the invitation.