Martin Bangemann | |
Birth Date: | 15 November 1934 |
Birth Place: | Wanzleben, Saxony, Prussia, Germany |
Death Place: | Deux-Sèvres, France |
Office: | Federal Minister of Economics West Germany |
Term Start: | 27 June 1984 |
Term End: | 9 December 1988 |
Predecessor: | Otto Graf Lambsdorff |
Successor: | Helmut Haussmann |
Office2: | Chairman of the FDP |
Term Start2: | 1985 |
Term End2: | 1988 |
Predecessor2: | Hans-Dietrich Genscher |
Successor2: | Otto Graf Lambsdorff |
Party: | FDP |
Occupation: | Lawyer |
Children: | 5 |
Martin Bangemann (15 November 1934 – 28 June 2022) was a German politician and a leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 1985 to 1988. He was German Federal Minister of Economics and European Commissioner.
Bangemann was born on 15 November 1934 in Wanzleben.[1] He studied law in Tübingen and Munich, and earned a Dr. jur. (not equivalent to J.D., but a PhD in law) in 1962 with a dissertation entitled Bilder und Fiktionen in Recht und Rechtswissenschaft (Imagery and fiction in law and jurisprudence). He qualified as an attorney in 1964. In 1963, he joined the FDP.[2] He worked as a lawyer in Baden-Württemberg.[3]
In 1972, he was elected to the Bundestag and became briefly Secretary General of the FDP.
Bangemann was a member of the European Parliament from 1973 to 1984; from 1976 to 1979 he was vice-chairman, from 1979 to 1984 chairman of the Liberal and Democratic Group. From 1978 to 1979 he was vice-chair of the Committee on Budgets.[4]
Bangemann was the German Federal Minister of Economics from 1984 to 1988.[5] Problems in his tenure were high unemployment and the steel, coal and shipyard crises.[6]
In 1988, Bangemann joined the European Commission. He was Commissioner for the internal market and industrial affairs in the Delors Commission from 1989 to 1995.[7] He was then Commissioner for Industrial affairs, Information & Telecommunications Technologies in the Santer Commission from 1995 to 1999.
As commissioner he led a "high-level group" that drew up the report "Europe and the Global Information Society" in 1994.[8] [9] This document contained recommendations to the European Council on the measures that Europe should take regarding information infrastructure. It became known as the "Bangemann report" and influenced many EU policies.[10]
He then moved from European politics to the board of the Spanish group Telefónica.[11] [12] In addition, Bangemann ran a consulting agency.
He was married and had five children.[13]
Bangemann died from a heart attack at his home in Deux-Sèvres on 28 June 2022 at the age of 87.
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