Wolfgang Rauls Explained

Wolfgang Rauls
Office:Leader of the National Democratic Party
Term Start:11 February 1990
Term End:27 March 1990
Predecessor:Wolfgang Glaeser
Successor:Position abolished
Jürgen Schmieder (as Leader of the Association of Free Democrats)
Term Start1:31 December 2005
Term End1:30 June 2012
Deputy1:Annette Schulze
Predecessor1:Klaus Petersen
Successor1:Jens Hünerbein
Office2:Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt
Status2:Acting
Term Start2:28 November 1993
Term End2:2 December 1993
Deputy2:himself
Successor2:Christoph Bergner
Office3:Deputy Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt
Term Start3:12 September 1991
Term End3:21 July 1994
Predecessor3:Gerd Brunner
Successor3:Heidrun Heidecke
Office4:Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation of Saxony-Anhalt
1Namedata4:Gerd Gies
Werner Münch
Christoph Bergner
Term Start4:2 November 1990
Term End4:21 July 1994
Predecessor4:Position established
Successor4:Heidrun Heidecke (Environment, Nature Conservation and Regional Planning)
Embed:yes
Office6:Member of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt
Term Start6:16 May 2002
Term End6:1 January 2006
Successor6:Uwe Droese
Predecessor6:multi-member district
Constituency6:Free Democratic Party List
Term Start7:28 October 1990
Term End7:21 July 1994
Successor7:multi-member district
Predecessor7:Constituency established
Constituency7:Free Democratic Party List
Birth Name:Wolfgang Rauls
Birth Date:17 June 1948
Birth Place:Rohrsheim, Province of Saxony-Anhalt, Soviet occupation zone (now Germany)
Residence:Gommern
Party:Free Democratic Party (1990–)
Otherparty:Association of Free Democrats (1990)
National Democratic Party (GDR) (1968–1990)
Alma Mater:Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft der DDR

Wolfgang Rauls (17 June 1948 – 19 June 2023[1]) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was the last leader of the National Democratic Party during the Wende, before its eventual merger into the Free Democratic Party. After German reunification, he entered state politics in Saxony-Anhalt, serving as Minister for the Environment and, eventually, Deputy Minister-President in the CDU cabinets from 1990 to 1994.[2]

Political career

East Germany

In 1968 Rauls, an electrician by trade, joined the National Democratic Party, a Bloc party subservient to the ruling Socialist Unity Party. He thereafter worked as a full-time party official and civil servant in the Bezirk Magdeburg.[3]

During the Peaceful Revolution, Rauls was elected leader of the National Democratic Party and was their lead candidate in the 1990 Volkskammer election. The NDPD now was independent and running on a classical liberal platform of a Social market economy, a phased plan to German reunification and entry of the GDR in the European Community. However, because the NDPD had been reluctant to criticise the SED government even during the Peaceful Revolution[4] and was stained as a former Bloc party, it was initially barred from joining the Association of Free Democrats liberal coalition and fared poorly in the election. With 44,292 votes (0.38%) they received fewer votes than they (nominally) had members. The two elected members of the Volkskammer, none of them being Rauls, joined The Liberals group and the NDPD eventually merged with the Association of Free Democrats, then the Free Democratic Party. Rauls was elected to the Federal Executive Board of the party at the same time.

Saxony-Anhalt state politics

After German reunification, Rauls entered state politics in Saxony-Anhalt, where he became Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation in a coalition government with the CDU under Minister-President Gerd Gies, after winning election to the Landtag in the inaugural October 1990 state election. Under Werner Münch, he was additionally appointed Deputy Minister-President after Gerd Brunner, then also FDP leader Saxony-Anhalt, was exposed as having worked for the Stasi.[5]

In the 1994 election, the coalition government lost re-election, with the FDP under lead candidate Peter Kunert being shut out of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt entirely. In January of that year, Rauls had unsuccessfully tried to topple Kunert from his leadership position of the FDP in Saxony-Anhalt. There were quarrels about the direction of the party, with left-leaning Kunert favoring a coalition with SPD and the Greens instead of the CDU.

Rauls later was elected to the Landtag again in the 2002 election, but he was not among the FDP cabinet ministers. Rauls resigned from the Landtag in January 2006, having been elected Mayor of Gommern, a position he retired from in 2012.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Traueranzeigen von Wolfgang Rauls | www.abschied-nehmen.de (Funeral notices for Wolfgang Rauls) . de. 2024-05-07. www.abschied-nehmen.de.
  2. Book: Childs, David . The Fall of the GDR . 30 July 2014 . Routledge . 978-1-317-88310-4 . en.
  3. Web site: Rauls, Wolfgang . 2009 . 27 June 2022. de.
  4. Book: Richter, Michael. 2009. Die friedliche Revolution: Aufbruch zur Demokratie in Sachsen 1989/90. 1077. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 978-3647369143.
  5. Web site: Wolfgang Rauls . Chronik der Wende . 27 June 2022. de.
  6. Web site: Wolfgang Rauls geht vorzeitig in den Ruhestand . Volksstimme . 11 November 2011 . 27 June 2022. de.