Jürgen Rüttgers

Jürgen Rüttgers
Rüttgers in 2010
Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office
22 June 2005 – 14 July 2010
PresidentHorst Köhler
Christian Wulff
ChancellorGerhard Schröder
Angela Merkel
DeputyAndreas Pinkwart
Preceded byPeer Steinbrück
Succeeded byHannelore Kraft
Federal Minister of Education, Science, Research, and Technology (Germany)
In office
17 November 1994 – 14 October 1998
PresidentRichard von Weizsäcker
Roman Herzog
ChancellorHelmut Kohl
Preceded byPaul Krüger (Science, Research and Technology)
Karl-Hans Laermann (Education)
Succeeded byEdelgard Bulmahn (Education, Science and Research)
Werner Müller (Technology)
Personal details
Born (1951-06-26) 26 June 1951 (age 73)
Cologne, West Germany
Political partyChristian Democratic Union (CDU)
Websitejuergen-ruettgers.de

Jürgen Rüttgers (born 26 June 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the 9th Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010.[1]

Education

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Rüttgers was born in Cologne.[2] He holds degrees in Law and History from the University of Cologne and a Dr. Jur. (PhD) in Law (1979). He became a member of K.D.St. V. Rappoltstein Köln, a Catholic student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband.

Political career

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Career in national politics

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Rüttger in 1977

Rüttgers was a Member of the German Bundestag from 1987 until 2000. In 1991 he succeeded Friedrich Bohl as First Secretary of the parliamentary group, in this position assisting the parliamentary group's chairman Wolfgang Schäuble.

Rüttgers served as Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's fifth cabinet from 1994 to 1998. During his time as minister, he was – together with Luigi Berlinguer (Italy), Claude Allegre (France), and Baroness Tessa Blackstone (United Kingdom) – one of the heads of the "Sorbonne declaration", the joint declaration on harmonisation of the architecture of the European higher education system, on 25 May 1998. That was the starting point of the so-called "Bologna process". He also successfully introduced a law under which online providers can be prosecuted for offering a venue for content illegal in Germany – such as child pornography or Nazi propaganda – if they do so knowingly and it is "technically possible and reasonable" to prevent it. Also, the law made Germany the first country to set rules for so-called digital signatures and give them the status of a legal document.[3]

Between 1998 and 2000, Rüttgers served as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, again under Schäuble's leadership.

Career in state politics

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In 2000, Rüttgers succeeded Norbert Blüm as chairman of the CDU in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. As head of the party in Germany's most populous state, he commanded considerable influence, especially with its grassroots.[4] He also became the party's group leader in the state parliament. In this capacity, he notably opposed the takeover of Mannesmann by the British telecommunications company Vodafone in 2000, one of the largest-ever company takeovers worldwide.[5]

Amid the revelations of the CDU donations scandal in early 2000, Rüttgers – who ran as the party's candidate in a crucial state election in North Rhine-Wesphalia that year – was one of the few leading figures who remained loyal to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl even after prosecutors began a criminal investigation into Kohl's financial dealings.[6] By January 2000, daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed that Kohl, angered by party chairman Wolfgang Schäuble's efforts to distance himself from the scandal surrounding secret payments to the party, was encouraging Rüttgers to make a bid for the leadership at the CDU's annual conference; instead, Angela Merkel was elected as Schäuble's successor[6] and Rüttgers became one of her four deputies, alongside Volker Rühe, Annette Schavan and Christian Wulff.[7]

In his role as chairman of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rüttgers later publicly endorsed Merkel as the party's candidate to challenge incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2002 federal elections; instead, Edmund Stoiber ended up being the joint candidate of CDU and CSU.[8][9]

Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia

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In the 2005 state elections, Rüttgers was the opposition Christian Democratic Union's front-runner for the second time. After both CDU and FDP won a majority of seats in the elections, they formed a coalition to take over government from the former SPD and Green party coalition led by Peer Steinbrück. Rüttgers was elected Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia on 22 June, the state's first CDU Minister-President in 39 years. His cabinet, notably included representatives of the CDU's more liberal wing, such as Armin Laschet (as State Minister for Generations, Family, Women and Integration) and Karl-Josef Laumann (as State Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs).

On the national level, Rüttgers was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the SPD on a coalition agreement following the 2005 federal elections,[10] which paved the way to the formation of Chancellor Angela Merkel's first government. Under the leadership of Merkel as party chairwoman, he was re-elected vice-chairman of the CDU in November 2006, this time alongside Roland Koch, Annette Schavan and Christian Wulff.[11]

During his time in office, Rüttgers came under severe criticism for failing to mend the state's public finances. One of the reasons was the crisis at the state-owned lender WestLB, which led his government to set aside 1.5 billion in 2008.[12] Rüttgers long wanted the bank to stay independent[13] and categorically ruled out a merger with LBBW.[14] However, by 2007, he and Roland Koch, his counterpart from the state of Hesse, agreed on approving a merger of their respective state-owned banks, WestLB and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba).[14] WestLB was eventually broken up in 2012 after years of losses and controversy.

Also in 2007, Rüttgers helped negotiate an agreement on closing Germany's last anthracite mines and clearing the way for the stock market flotation of the mines' owner, RAG AG, at the time the largest German coal producer and an international chemicals, energy and real estate conglomerate.[15]

Between 2007 and 2009, Rüttgers was one of 32 members of the Second Commission on the modernization of the federal state, which had been established to reform the division of powers between federal and state authorities in Germany.

Rüttgers on a 2000 poster of the CDU

Shortly before the 2010 state elections, Rüttgers's public image was damaged by a party fund-raising scandal,[16] and local issues like education and the troubles of municipalities with heavy debt burdens were central to the campaign.[17] He led his party to an electoral defeat; the steep drop of 10 percentage points compared with the previous election, in 2005, was even larger than most analysts had predicted and gave the Christian Democrats their worst postwar showing in that state.[17] The loss also meant Chancellor Merkel could no longer count on a majority for her governing coalition in the Bundesrat, composed of delegations from all 16 states. In July 2010, Rüttgers stepped down as caretaker premier and also gave up his position as state party chairman.[18]

Life after politics

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Rüttgers joined the Düsseldorf office of German law firm Beiten Burkhardt as Of Counsel in March 2011. In this capacity, he is a member of the firm's Assets, Succession, Foundations practice group and also advises international companies on investments in Germany and German companies on international investments.[19]

In May 2011, Deutsche Bahn nominated Rüttgers as executive director of the Brussels-based Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER);[20] instead, Libor Lochman was eventually appointed to the position.[21][22]

Rüttgers was a CDU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2017[23][24] and 2022.[25]

Since 2021, Rüttgers has been a member of the so-called Limbach Commission (Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property), a panel convened by the German government to give recommendations on restitution claims regarding art works stolen or purchased under duress by the Nazis.[26]

In addition, Rüttgers has held several paid and unpaid positions since leaving politics, including the following:

Political positions

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During his political career, Rüttgers proved to be a conservative on social issues such as immigration. He also positioned himself as a "workers' leader" on economics, defending labor rights and opposing business demands for deregulation of the economy.[34] Unlike many in his party at the time, he was also in favor of expanding day care for young children and supported all-day schools.[35] Following the CDU's performance in the 2005 federal elections and the formation of the first government under Chancellor Merkel, Rüttgers blamed her campaign for talking "too much about flat tax and not enough about the people." Instead, he called on the party to shed its "capitalist" image.[36]

In his 1993 book Dinosaurs of Democracy, Rüttgers attacked Germany's main parties and the government for being unwilling to decentralise political power to ordinary people.[37]

Controversy

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Rüttgers is widely known for his views on immigration and the much-discussed phrase "Kinder statt Inder" ("children instead of Indians") which was a media interpretation of "Statt Inder an die Computer müssen unsere Kinder an die Computer" ("instead of Indians in front of computers, our children must be in front of computers"), during an election campaign (which he eventually lost) at a time when there was a parallel nationwide discussion about whether or not immigration rules should be liberalised on behalf of attracting more highly qualified foreign academics to the German labor market.

In response to Rüttgers's much-discussed phrase Kinder statt Inder, Germany's Green Party overwhelmed his Internet mailbox with thousands of messages. The Internet attack was the first of its kind in German politics.[38]

Recognition

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Honors and awards

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Honorary degrees

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References

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  1. ^ Neukirch, Ralf; Feldenkirchen, Markus (10 December 2009). "CDU Governor Jürgen Rüttgers: 'We Cannot Have Massive Cuts'". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  2. ^ Lingen, Marcus (27 October 2015). "Jürgen Rüttgers". Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  3. ^ "Germany Passes Internet Law Limiting Content". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 5 July 1997. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  4. ^ Benoit, Bertrand (24 April 2008). "Merkel's CDU split by pensions strategy". Financial Times. [dead link‍]
  5. ^ Teather, David (22 November 1999). "Bid for Mannesmann sparks political outcry". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  6. ^ a b Staunton, Denis (9 January 2000). "Kohl crony set to launch party coup". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  7. ^ Leersch, Hans-Jürgen (11 April 2000). "CDU-Parteitag krönt Angela Merkel". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  8. ^ "K-Frage: Mitgliederstärkster Landesverband stützt Merkel". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 9 January 2002. ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  9. ^ Fischer, Jürgen; Noé, Martin (13 January 2002). "Stoiber bindet CDU-Größen ein". Handelsblatt (in German). Archived from the original on 30 December 2016.
  10. ^ "Am Montag soll auch Merkels Liste stehen". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 14 October 2005. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  11. ^ "Merkels bunte Truppe". n-tv (in German). 27 November 2006. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  12. ^ Morarjee, Rachel (11 February 2008). "WestLB faces up to its next hurdle". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  13. ^ Meike Schreiber and Steffen Klusmann (26 November 2007), WestLB may acquire IKB Financial Times.
  14. ^ a b Balzli, Beat; Reuter, Wolfgang; Winter, Steffen (19 December 2007). "Trouble Ahead For State-Owned Banks in Germany". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  15. ^ Dougherty, Carter (14 June 2007). "Germany finds solution to its withering coal mines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  16. ^ Dempsey, Judy (1 March 2010). "Fund-Raising Scandals Pose Risk to Merkel's Party in Two State Elections". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  17. ^ a b Kulish, Nicholas (10 May 2010). "Conservatives in Germany Suffer Defeat at Polls". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  18. ^ Dempsey, Judy (18 July 2010). "Merkel Loses Ally as Standing Slides". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers". Beiten Burkhardt (in German). Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
  20. ^ "Pan-European ticketing systems, please". European Voice. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  21. ^ "Trainspotting". European Voice. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  22. ^ "Bahnverband CER: Rüttgers zieht Kandidatur als Bahn-Chef-Lobbyist zurück". Der Spiegel (in German). 6 September 2011. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  23. ^ "Prominente wählen neuen Präsidenten mit". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 14 December 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  24. ^ "Wahl der Mitglieder für die 16. Bundesversammlung" (PDF). State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia (in German). 14 December 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  25. ^ "Drucksache 17/16063: Ergebnis der Wahl der Mitglieder zur 17. Bundesversammlung" (PDF). State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia (in German). 16 December 2021. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  26. ^ Members Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property.
  27. ^ "About us". 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  28. ^ "Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers wird Mitglied des Aufsichtsrats der CFC" (Press release) (in German). CFC Industriebeteiligungen AG. 20 December 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016.
  29. ^ Mueller-Töwe, Jonas (5 March 2023). "Wenige Monate nach Ausscheiden aus dem Amt: Ex-NRW-Finanzminister übernimmt Aufsichtsratsposten". T-Online (in German). Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  30. ^ "Foundation Council". Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  31. ^ "Kuratorium & Finanzausschuss". Brost-Stiftung (in German). Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  32. ^ "Vorstand und Kuratorium". Deutsche Telekom Stiftung (in German). Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  33. ^ "Vorstand". Konrad Adenauer Foundation (in German). Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  34. ^ Walker, Marcus; McGroarty, Patrick (3 May 2010). "German Coalition Faces Tough Regional Vote". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  35. ^ Pfister, René (5 February 2010). "A Paralyzing State Election: The Man Who Could Take Down Merkel". Spiegel Online. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  36. ^ Benoit, Bertrand (2 August 2006). "Merkel ally says capitalist image must go". Financial Times. [dead link‍]
  37. ^ "Rotten luck for Rüttgers". Financial Times. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  38. ^ Kueppers, Alfred (6 April 2000). "Greens Flame Ruettgers In Immigration Protest". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  39. ^ "Rüttgers erhält Handwerkspreis". Aachener Zeitung (in German). Deutscher Depeschendienst (DDP). 18 November 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  40. ^ "Ministerpräsident Rüttgers Ehrenlegionär". Bild (in German). 3 October 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  41. ^ "Ministerpräsident Jürgen Rüttgers erhält Malteserorden". State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia (in German). 31 March 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2019. [dead link‍]
  42. ^ Peters, Markus (31 January 2010). ""Wider den tierischen Ernst". Jürgen Rüttgers singt Disco-Klassiker". Rheinische Post (in German). Retrieved 16 September 2019.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia
2005–2010 		Succeeded by
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