Walter Scheel

Walter Scheel
8th President of Germany
In office July 1, 1974 – June 30, 1979
Preceded by	Gustav Heinemann
Succeeded by	Karl Carstens
Personal details
Born	July 8, 1919 Solingen, Germany
Nationality	german
Spouse	Mildred Scheel (1932-1985)

Walter Scheel (born July 8, 1919) is a German politician.

Biography

Scheel was born in Solingen. During World War 2 he served in the Luftwaffe, the last years of the war as a Radar operator on a Me 110 Nightfighter.

As federal minister of economic cooperation and development (1961-1966) he brought about the downfall of the Erhard government in late 1966, when he took the Free Democratic Party, which he led, out of the coalition government.

In 1969 he enabled his party to form a new coalition with the social democrats (being integrated in a government for the first time). He returned to government as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor. Due to his foreign policy the Federal Republic of Germany gave up claims on former territories ceded to Poland and the USSR in 1945 and officially recognized the existence of the GDR, causing a massive public debate that led to early elections in 1972. The coalition was reelected and the efforts to improve relations with the countries on the other side of the iron curtain continued.

On May 7, 1974 Brandt resigned as Chancellor after one of his personal assistants, Günter Guillaume, was arrested as a spy for the East German state. Though this had been internally suspected since 1973, Brandt accepted responsibility and resigned. Scheel, as acting chancellor, chaired the government meetings for a little over a week, until Helmut Schmidt was elected Chancellor.

At that time Scheel was elected Federal President of West Germany, a post he held from July 1974 until June 1979. He largely retreated to private life after his term of office expired, though he sometimes appears on political talk shows or events. At the funeral of Hanns Martin Schleyer in October 1977, Scheel gave a speech entitled shame.