He was not only seen in the SPD as a man of good conscience, he was a minister, party and faction leader – and candidate for chancellor. Now the former SPD leader Hans-Jochen Vogel has died at the age of 94.
The former SPD chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel is dead. The SPD parliamentary group announced on Twitter and thus confirmed corresponding media reports. Vogel died at the age of 94 in Munich after a long illness.
His career was marked by many highlights, but also defeats: he was federal building and federal justice minister, mayor in Berlin for almost four months, SPD party and faction leader – and candidate for chancellor.
Vogel was born in Göttingen in 1926. Vogel was elected Mayor of Munich at the age of 34. His greatest triumph: he brings the 1972 Olympic Games to Germany.
Brandt brought Vogel into the cabinet
A short time later, Vogel went into federal politics. Willy Brandt brought the man with the bureaucratic ingenuity into his cabinet as Minister of Construction. In 1983 Vogel competed against Helmut Kohl as a candidate for chancellor and was bitterly defeated.
Vogel took over the chairmanship of the SPD parliamentary group from Herbert Wehner in 1983, and then in 1987 also party chairmanship of Brandt. In 1991 he gave up both positions and retired from active politics.
Apart from the big issue of “social justice”, Vogel was also concerned with another problem into old age: the impending disintegration of Europe. When Britain’s exit from the EU became apparent for the first time, Vogel said that 70 years of peace in Europe could only be achieved by overcoming nationalism.
Vogel had only made his Parkinson’s disease public a few years before his death, until the last time he lived with his wife Liselotte in a senior residence in Munich.
“We mourn and bow”
SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil praised Vogel as a politician “who has shaped this country for decades and to whom we all owe a lot”.
The SPD co-party leader Saskia Esken wrote: “We mourn and bow before this great Social Democrat.”
