Heiner Geißler
Heiner Geißler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Geißler in 1986 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 October 1982 – 26 September 1985 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor | Helmut Kohl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Anke Fuchs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Rita Süssmuth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister for Social Affairs, Health and Sports of Rhineland-Palatinate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 18 May 1967 – 23 June 1977 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Georg Gölter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 7 March 1977 – 11 September 1989 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Kurt Biedenkopf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Volker Rühe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Heinrichjosef Geißler 3 March 1930 Oberndorf am Neckar, Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 12 September 2017 (aged 87) Gleisweiler, Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Christian Democratic Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3, including Dominik | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Heinrich "Heiner" Geißler (3 March 1930 – 12 September 2017) was a German politician and judge who served as the Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health from 1982 to 1985. A member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), he served as the party's general secretary from 1977 to 1989.
Geißler served as a government minister in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate under the minister presidents Peter Altmeier, Helmut Kohl and Bernhard Vogel before becoming general secretary of the CDU. During his tenure, he served as federal minister and attempted to overthrow Kohl, then the party chairman, at the 1989 CDU party congress in Bremen, but failed and thereafter lost his position within the party.
Both during his tenure and after, he took on increasingly left-leaning positions in economic questions and questions of women's emancipation, and eventually joined the activist organisation ATTAC, which is critical of globalisation. Later in life, he served as a mediator in employer-employee disputes, as well as a mediator in the conflict surrounding the Stuttgart 21 railway.