Kiesinger, Kurt Georg, born 06-04-1904 in Ebingen, His father was a commercial clerk in companies engaged in the local textile industry. Kiesinger was baptized Catholic because his mother was Catholic, though his father was Protestant. His mother died six months after he was born. His maternal grandmother exerted a strong influence on Kiesinger and encouraged him, while his father was indifferent to his advancement. After a year, his father was remarried to a Karoline Victoria Pfaff. They had seven children, of whom Kiesinger’s half-sister Maria died a year after she was born. Pfaff was also a Catholic. Kiesinger was therefore shaped by both denominations and later referred to himself gladly as a “Protestant Catholic”. Politically, Kiesinger grew up in a liberal, democratically-minded milieu.
Kurt was a German politician affiliated with the CDU and Chancellor of West Germany from 01-12-1966 until 21-10-1969. Kiesinger was educated in Berlin and became a lawyer. As a student, he joined the, non-couleur wearing, Roman Catholic corporations Alamannia Tübingen and Askania-Burgundia Berlin. He became a member of the Nazi Party in February 1933, a few weeks after Hitler became chancellor. In 1940, he was called to arms but avoided mobilization by finding a job in the foreign ministry’s radio propaganda department, rising quickly to become the ministry’s connection with Goebbels’s (did you know) propaganda ministry. After the war, he was interned and spent 18 months in the Ludwigsburg camp before being released as a case of mistaken identity. During the controversies of 1966, the magazine Der Spiegel unearthed a Memorandum dated 07-11-1944, five months before the war’s end, by which a colleague denounced to Himmler’s a conspiracy including Kiesinger that was propagating defeatism and hampering anti-Jewish actions within their department and several others. By the time the first national elections were held in the Federal Republic in 1949, Kiesinger had joined the Christian Democratic Union, CDU and won a seat in the Bundestag, the West German parliament. In 1951 he became a member of the CDU executive board. During that time, he became known for his rhetorical brilliance, as well as his in-depth knowledge of foreign affairs. However, despite the recognition he enjoyed within the Christian Democrat parliamentary faction, he was passed over during various cabinet reshuffles. Consequently, he decided to switch from federal to state politics: He was appointed Prime Minister, Ministerpräsident, of the state of Baden-Württemberg on 17-12-1958, an office in which he served until 01-12-1966. After the election of 1969, the SPD preferred to form a coalition with the FDP, ending the uninterrupted post-war reign of the CDU chancellors. Kiesinger was succeeded as Chancellor by Willy Brandt
Kiesinger continued to head the CDU/CSU in opposition until July 1971 and remained a member of the Bundestag until 1980. Of his memoirs only part one, Dark and Bright Years, was completed, covering the years up to 1958.
Death and burial ground of Kiesinger, Kurt Georg.
He died in Tübingen. After a requiem mass in Stuttgart’s St. Eberhard church, his funeral procession to Tübingen Stadfriedhof was followed by protesters, mainly students, who wanted his entire legacy remembered – even after his death – especially his former membership in the Nazi Party.
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