He was a politician from the variety, who does not in the first place stimulate his own progress, but rather unbreakable beliefs. Now the former German Minister of the Interior and the social liberal FDP politician Gerhart Baum died at the age of 92.
At the end of his life, the convinced democrat and human rights lawyer had to admit that Western values were under pressure. “Democracies weaken worldwide,” he admitted. For him that was no reason for dismissal, but an incentive to keep fighting. As far as Germany is concerned, he turned against the black vision: “We still have a stable democracy and no split society. Let’s not talk to ourselves. We have threats for freedom, especially because of right -wing extremism, I take that very seriously. But we still have a very strong, successful democracy.
Baum, besides his friend Burkhard Hirsch, who died in March 2020, was one of the last small group of FDP members of the Social Library, who came together with Hildegard Hamm-Brücher and then also with Sabine LeueTeusser-Schnarrenberger in the Freiburg district. That meant that quasi -liberal opposition left in his own party.
Minister of the Interior under Helmut Schmidt
From 1978, Baum was the German Minister of the Interior among SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt for four years in the time of the RAF terror. After the FDP turn from the SPD to the Union in 1982, the social -liberal coalition was over. Multiple, especially young-FDP members left the party at the time. Baum remained and was still FDP VICE from 1982 to 1991.
After leaving the Bundestag, he worked again as a lawyer. Until the end he led successful constitutional complaints against government monitoring together with Hirsch and Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger: against the Great Lausure Attack, the data retention or the Redgroen air safety law to launch abducted passenger machines.
Baum, born on October 28, 1932, came from the Dresden Educational Middle Class. Father and grandfather were also lawyers. The mother, a Russian, fled with the children after bombing Dresden in February 1945 to Lake Tegernsee. In 1950 the family moved to Cologne.
Hard work – until the end
Baum worked every day to almost last. At the age of 89 he transferred an agreement between the relatives of the Israeli victims of the Olympic attack by Munich in 1972 and the German government. He also represented Russian forced laborers and family members and victims of a plane crash at the American military airport in Ramstein. Sitting on a park bench or the dog was not for him, he admitted the German news agency shortly before his 90th birthday.
When you spoke with him, he always gave the impression that he was in a hurry. “Let’s start!” He said. There was no room for cows and calves, it was time -wing time.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
