Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (German: [joˈʔaxiːm
ɡaʊ̯k]; born 24 January 1940) is a German
politician and civil rights activist who served
as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017.
A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence
as an anti-communist civil rights activist
in East Germany.During the Peaceful Revolution
in 1989, he was a co-founder of the New Forum
opposition movement in East Germany, which
contributed to the downfall of the Socialist
Unity Party of Germany (SED) and later with
two other movements formed the electoral list
Alliance 90.
In 1990 he was a member of the only freely
elected East German People's Chamber in the
Alliance 90/The Greens faction.
Following German reunification, he was elected
as a member of the Bundestag by the People's
Chamber in 1990 but resigned after a single
day chosen by the Bundestag to be the first
Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records,
serving from 1990 to 2000.
He earned recognition in this position as
a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy
advocate", exposing the crimes of the communist
secret police.He was nominated as the candidate
of the SPD and the Greens for President of
Germany in the 2010 election, but lost in
the third draw to Christian Wulff, the candidate
of the government coalition.
His candidacy was met by significant approval
of the population and the media; Der Spiegel
described him as "the better President" and
the Bild called him "the president of hearts."
Later, after Christian Wulff stepped down,
Gauck was elected as President with 991 of
1228 votes in the Federal Convention in the
2012 election, as a nonpartisan consensus
candidate of the CDU, the CSU, the FDP, the
SPD and the Greens.
A son of a survivor of a Soviet Gulag, Gauck's
political life was formed by his own family's
experiences with totalitarianism.
Gauck was a founding signatory of the Prague
Declaration on European Conscience and Communism,
together with Václav Havel and other statesmen,
and of the Declaration on Crimes of Communism.
He has called for increased awareness of communist
crimes in Europe, and for the necessity of
delegitimizing the communist era.
As President he was a proponent of "an enlightened
anti-communism" and he has underlined the
illegitimacy of communist rule in East Germany.
He is the author and co-author of several
books, including The Black Book of Communism.
His 2012 book Freedom: A Plea calls for the
defense of freedom and human rights around
the globe.
He has been described by Chancellor Angela
Merkel as a "true teacher of democracy" and
a "tireless advocate of freedom, democracy,
and justice."
The Wall Street Journal has described him
as "the last of a breed: the leaders of protest
movements behind the Iron Curtain who went
on to lead their countries after 1989."
He has received numerous honours, including
the 1997 Hannah Arendt Prize.
== Childhood and life in East Germany (1940–1989)
==
Joachim Gauck was born into a family of sailors
in Rostock, the son of Olga (née Warremann;
born 1910) and Joachim Gauck, Sr. (born 1907).
His father was an experienced ship's captain
and distinguished naval officer (Kapitän
zur See – captain at sea), who after World
War II worked as an inspector at the Neptun
Werft shipbuilding company.
Both parents were members of the Nazi Party
(NSDAP).
Following the Soviet occupation at the end
of World War II, the communists were installed
into power in what became the German Democratic
Republic (East Germany).
When Joachim Gauck was eleven years old, in
1951, his father was arrested by Soviet occupation
forces; he was not to return until 1955.
He was convicted by a Russian military tribunal
of espionage for receiving a letter from the
West and also of anti-Soviet demagogy for
being in the possession of a western journal
on naval affairs, and deported to a Gulag
in Siberia, where he was mistreated to the
extent that he was considered physically disabled
after one year, according to his son.
For nearly three years, the family knew nothing
about what had happened to him and whether
he was still alive.
He was freed in 1955, following the state
visit of Konrad Adenauer to Moscow.
Adenauer negotiated the release of thousands
of German prisoners of war and civilians who
had been deported.Gauck graduated with an
Abitur from Innerstädtisches Gymnasium in
Rostock.
According to Gauck, his political activities
were inspired by the ordeal of his father,
and he stated that he grew up with a "well-founded
anti-communism".
Already in school in East Germany, he made
no secret of his anti-communist position,
and he steadfastly refused to join the communist
youth movement, the Free German Youth.
He wanted to study German and become a journalist,
but because he wasn't a communist, he wasn't
allowed to do so.
Instead he chose to study theology and become
a pastor in the Protestant church in Mecklenburg.
He has stated that his primary intention was
not to become a pastor, but the theology studies
offered an opportunity to study philosophy
and the church was one of the few institutions
in East Germany where communist ideology was
not dominant.
Nevertheless, he did eventually become a pastor.
His work as a pastor in East Germany was very
difficult due to the hostility of the communist
regime towards the church, and for many years
he was under constant observation and was
harassed by the Stasi (the secret police).
The Stasi described Gauck in their file on
him as an "incorrigible anti-communist" ("unverbesserlicher
Antikommunist").
He has said that "at the age of nine, I knew
socialism was an unjust system."In his memoirs,
he writes that "the fate of our father was
like an educational cudgel.
It led to a sense of unconditional loyalty
towards the family which excluded any sort
of idea of fraternisation with the system."
== 
Career during and after the Peaceful Revolution
of 1989 ==
During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, he
became a member of the New Forum, a democratic
opposition movement, and was elected as its
spokesman.
He also took part in major demonstrations
against the communist regime of GDR.
In the free elections on 18 March 1990, he
was elected to the People's Chamber of the
GDR, representing the Alliance 90 (that consisted
of the New Forum, Democracy Now and the Initiative
for Peace and Human Rights), where he served
until the dissolution of the GDR in October
1990.
On 2 October 1990, the day before the dissolution
of the GDR, the People's Chamber elected him
Special Representative for the Stasi Records.
After the dissolution of the GDR the following
day, he was appointed Special Representative
of the Federal Government for the Stasi Records
by President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor
Helmut Kohl.
As such, he was in charge of the archives
of the Stasi and tasked with investigating
communist crimes.
In 1992, his office became known as the Federal
Commissioner for the Stasi Records.
He served in this position until 2000, when
he was succeeded by Marianne Birthler.
Gauck served as a member of the Bundestag,
the Parliament of Germany, from 3 to 4 October
1990 (the 1990 People's Chamber was granted
the right to nominate a certain number of
MPs as part of the reunification process).
He stepped down following his appointment
as Special Representative of the Federal Government.
As such, he was the shortest serving Member
of Parliament of Germany ever.
He refused the position of President of the
Federal Agency for Civic Education as well
as offers to be nominated as a candidate for
parliament by the SPD.
Voices inside the CSU proposed him as a possible
conservative presidential candidate (against
SPD career politician Johannes Rau) in 1999,
and his name was also mentioned as a possible
candidate for CDU/CSU and Free Democratic
Party in subsequent years.
For instance the Saxon FDP state party proposed
him as a liberal-conservative candidate in
2004, before the leaders of the parties agreed
on Horst Köhler.Since 2003, he has been chairman
of the association Gegen Vergessen – Für
Demokratie ("Against Forgetting – For Democracy"),
and he served on the Management Board of the
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
2001–2004.
== Political views and reception ==
He has written on Soviet-era concentration
camps such as the NKVD Special Camp No. 1,
the crimes of communism, and political oppression
in East Germany, and contributed to the German
edition of The Black Book of Communism.
In 2007, Joachim Gauck was invited to deliver
the main speech during a commemoration ceremony
at the Landtag of Saxony in memory of the
Reunification of Germany and the fall of the
communist government.
All parties participated, except The Left
(the successor of the communist Socialist
Unity Party (SED)), whose members walked out
in protest against Gauck's delivering the
speech.
Gauck supports the observation of The Left
by the Federal Office for the Protection of
the Constitution and the corresponding state
authorities.
Gauck has lauded the SPD for distancing itself
from The Left.Joachim Gauck is a founding
signatory of both the Prague Declaration on
European Conscience and Communism (2008),
with Václav Havel, and the Declaration on
Crimes of Communism (2010), both calling for
the condemnation of communism, education about
communist crimes and punishment of communist
criminals.
The Prague Declaration proposed the establishment
of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims
of Stalinism and Nazism, that was subsequently
designated by the European Parliament.
In 2010, Gauck criticized the political left
of ignoring communist crimes.Gauck is a supporter
of the idea to establish a Centre Against
Expulsions in Berlin.On the occasion of his
70th birthday in 2010, Gauck was praised by
Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "true teacher
of democracy" and a "tireless advocate of
freedom, democracy and justice".
The Independent has described Joachim Gauck
as "Germany's answer to Nelson Mandela".
The Wall Street Journal has described him
as "the last of a breed: the leaders of protest
movements behind the Iron Curtain who went
on to lead their countries after 1989," comparing
him to Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel.
Corriere della Sera has referred to him as
the "German Havel."Gauck is a member of Atlantik-Brücke,
an organisation promoting German-American
friendship.
Gauck supported the economic reforms initiated
by the red-green government of Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder.
He also supported the 1999 NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia, to end Yugoslav atrocities in
Kosovo.
He also supports the German military presence
in Afghanistan.
Gauck is a proponent of market economy, and
is sceptical towards the occupy movement.
In 2010, he said SPD politician Thilo Sarrazin
had "demonstrated courage" in opening a debate
on immigration.
However, he criticized several of Sarrazin's
views.In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty in 2007, Gauck said that "we have
to delegitimatize [the communist era] not
only because of the many victims and criminal
acts, but [also because] modern politics in
the entire Soviet empire was basically taken
backward."
According to The Wall Street Journal, he "has
dedicated his life to showing that the Soviet
system's evils were no less than the Third
Reich's."
In his 2012 book Freedom.
A Plea, he outlines his thoughts on freedom,
democracy, human rights and tolerance.
In 2012, Gauck said that "Muslims who are
living here are a part of Germany", but refused
to say whether Islam was a part of Germany,
as asserted by previous president Christian
Wulff.
The Central Council of Muslims in Germany
welcomed the remarks.In May 2015, Gauck urged
Germans to openly acknowledge that "millions
of soldiers of the Red Army lost their lives
during Nazi internment."
== 2010 presidential candidate ==
On 3 June 2010, Joachim Gauck was nominated
for President of Germany in the 2010 election
by the SPD and the Greens.
Gauck is not a member of either the SPD or
the Greens (although his former party in East
Germany eventually merged with the Greens
after reunification), and has stated that
he would have accepted a nomination by the
CDU as well.
Gauck once described himself as a "leftist,
liberal conservative" and after his nomination,
stated: "I'm neither red nor green, I'm Joachim
Gauck".
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described
him as a liberal conservative.Gauck is widely
respected across the political spectrum, and
is very popular also among CDU/CSU and FDP
politicians due to his record as an upstanding,
moral person during the communist dictatorship
as well as his record as a "Stasi hunter"
in the 1990s.
His main contender, Christian Wulff, and politicians
of all the government parties, stated that
they greatly respected Gauck and his life
and work.
Jörg Schönbohm, former Chairman of the CDU
of Brandenburg, also supported Gauck.The only
party that in principle rejected Gauck as
a possible president was the legal successor
of the East German communist party, Die Linke,
which interpreted the nomination of the SPD
and Greens as a refusal to cooperate with
Die Linke.
CSU politician Philipp Freiherr von Brandenstein
argued that the election of Joachim Gauck
would prevent any cooperation between SPD/Greens
and the party Die Linke for years to come:
"Gauck has likely made it perfectly clear
to [Sigmar] Gabriel that he will never appoint
any of the apologists of the communist tyranny
as government members".
Die Linke nominated their own candidate, former
journalist Luc Jochimsen, and chose to abstain
in the third ballot.
Die Linke's refusal to support Gauck drew
strong criticism from the SPD and Greens.
Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD chairman, described
Die Linke's position as "bizarre and embarrassing,"
stating that he was "shocked" that the party
would declare Joachim Gauck their main enemy
due to his investigation of communist injustice.
According to Gabriel, Die Linke had manifested
itself once again as the successor of the
East German communist party.
A politician of Die Linke compared the choice
between Gauck and Wulff to the choice between
Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, drawing strong
condemnation from the SPD and Greens.In the
election on 30 June 2010, Gauck was defeated
by Christian Wulff in the third ballot, with
a margin of 624 to 490.Gauck was originally
proposed as a presidential candidate for the
Greens by Andreas Schulze, then communications
adviser to the Greens in the Bundestag.
Schulze was appointed as Gauck's spokesman
in 2010, and again in 2012.
== President of Germany ==
=== Election ===
Following the resignation of President Christian
Wulff on 17 February 2012, Joachim Gauck was
nominated on 19 February as the joint candidate
for President of Germany by the government
parties CDU, CSU and FDP, and the opposition
SPD and the Alliance '90/The Greens.
This happened after the FDP, the SPD and the
Greens had strongly supported Gauck and urged
the conservatives to support him.
The SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, said Gauck
was his party's preferred candidate already
on 17 February, citing Gauck's "great confidence
among the citizens."
Reportedly, Chancellor Merkel gave in to FDP
chairman (and Vice-Chancellor) Philipp Rösler's
staunch support for Gauck; the agreement was
announced after the FDP presidium had unanimously
voted for Gauck earlier on 19 February.
He was thus supported by all major parties
represented in the Federal Convention, except
Die Linke, the successor party to the former
East German communist party.According to a
poll conducted for Stern, the nomination of
Gauck was met with high approval.
The majority of the voters of all political
parties represented in the Bundestag approved
of his nomination, with the Green voters being
most enthusiastic (84% approval) and Die Linke's
voters least (55% approval); overall, 69%
support him, while 15% oppose him.
His nomination was "broadly welcomed" by the
German media, which were described as "jubilant."
However, his candidacy was criticized by Die
Linke, and met with some other individual
criticism; he was criticized by individual
CSU members for not being married to the woman
he lives with, and by individual politicians
of the Greens, notably for his earlier statements
on Thilo Sarrazin and the occupy movement.
The SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, however,
stated that the reason that Die Linke was
the only party that did not support Gauck
was its "sympathy for the German Democratic
Republic."David Gill was appointed head of
Gauck's transition team, and later became
head of the Bundespräsidialamt.On 18 March
2012, Gauck was elected President of Germany
with 991 of 1228 votes in the Federal Convention.
Upon accepting his election, he assumed the
presidency immediately.
The new President took the oath of office
required by article 56 of Germany's Constitution
on Friday 23 March 2012 in the presence of
the assembled members of the Bundestag and
the Bundesrat.
On 6 June 2016, President Gauck announced
he would not stand for re-election in 2017,
citing his age as the reason.
=== Presidential visits to foreign countries
===
He has visited a significant number of countries
as President.
In 2014, he boycotted the 2014 Winter Olympics
in Sochi, Russia, in order to make a statement
against human rights violations in Russia.On
3 August 2014, he joined French President
François Hollande to mark the outbreak of
the war between Germany and France in 1914
during World War I by laying the first stone
of a memorial in Hartmannswillerkopf, for
French and German soldiers killed in the war.
=== State receptions ===
Gauck regularly welcomed state officials in
different parts of Germany, especially for
remarkable events in history.
On 18 September 2014, Gauck welcomed the heads
of states of (partly) German-speaking countries
Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg
and Liechtenstein to his home region of Mecklenburg.
It was the first time Belgium and Luxembourg
participated in the annual event.
They met in Bad Doberan, Warnemünde and the
city of Rostock to address the challenges
of demographic change in Europe and to commemorate
the peaceful revolution of 1989.
== Personal life ==
Gauck married Gerhild "Hansi" Gauck (née
Radtke), his childhood sweetheart whom he
met at age ten, but the couple has been separated
since 1991.
They were married in 1959, at 19, despite
his father's opposition, and have four children:
sons Christian (born 1960) and Martin (born
1962), and daughters Gesine (born 1966) and
Katharina (born 1979).
Christian, Martin and Gesine were able to
leave East Germany and emigrate to West Germany
in the late 1980s, while Katharina, still
a child, remained with her parents.
His children were discriminated against and
denied the right to education by the communist
regime because their father was a pastor.
His son Christian, who along with his brother
decided to leave the GDR in early 1984 and
was able to do so in 1987, studied medicine
in West Germany and became a physician.Since
2000, his domestic partner has been Daniela
Schadt, a journalist.Gauck is a member of
the Evangelical Church in Germany, and served
as a pastor for the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Mecklenburg—a member church of that federation.
== Selected publications ==
1991: Die Stasi-Akten.
Das unheimliche Erbe der DDR. (= rororo 13016)
Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1991 ISBN 3-499-13016-5
1992: Von der Würde der Unterdrückten (contributor)
1993: Verlust und Übermut.
Ein Kapitel über den Untertan als Bewohner
der Moderne (contributor)
1998: Das Schwarzbuch des Kommunismus – Unterdrückung,
Verbrechen und Terror (contributor of the
chapter "Vom schwierigen Umgang mit der Wahrnehmung",
on political oppression in East Germany),
Piper Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-492-04053-5
2007: Reite Schritt, Schnitter Tod!
Leben und Sterben im Speziallager Nr. 1 des
NKWD Mühlberg/Elbe (contributor), Elisabeth
Schuster (ed.), German War Graves Commission,
ISBN 978-3-936592-02-3 (on the NKVD Special
Camp No. 1, a Soviet NKVD concentration camp)
2007: Diktaturerfahrungen der Deutschen im
20.
Jahrhundert und was wir daraus lernen können
(Schriftenreihe zu Grundlagen, Zielen und
Ergebnissen der parliamentarischen Arbeit
der CDU-Fraktion des Sächsischen Landtages;
Band 42), Dresden 2007
2009: Die Flucht der Insassen: Freiheit als
Risiko (Weichenstellungen in die Zukunft.
Eine Veröffentlichung der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
e.V.).
Sankt Augustin-Berlin 2009.
ISBN 978-3-941904-20-0
2009: Winter im Sommer, Frühling im Herbst.
Erinnerungen.
[Winter in Summer, Spring in Autumn.
Memoirs].
München: Siedler 2009 ISBN 978-3-88680-935-6
2012: Freiheit.
Ein Plädoyer [Freedom.
A Plea].
Kösel, München 2012, ISBN 978-3-466-37032-0.
== Honours ==
1991: Theodor Heuss Medal
1995: Federal Cross of Merit
1996: Hermann Ehlers Prize
1997: Hannah Arendt Prize
1999: Honorary doctorate of the University
of Rostock
1999: Imre Nagy Prize of Hungary
2000: Dolf Sternberger Prize
2001: Erich Kästner Prize
2002: „Goldenes Lot" des Verbandes Deutscher
Vermessungsingenieure
2003: Courage Preis
2005: Honorary doctorate of the University
of Augsburg
2008: Thomas Dehler Prize
2009: Das Glas der Vernunft
2010: Geschwister-Scholl Preis
=== Foreign honours ===
Monaco : Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles
(9 July 2012)
Italy : Knight Grand Cross with Cordon of
the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
(20 February 2013)
Estonia: Collar of the Order of the Cross
of Terra Mariana (3 July 2013)
Lithuania: Grand Cross with Golden Chain of
the Order of Vytautas the Great (11 July 2013)
Norway: Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian
Order of St. Olav (11 June 2014)
United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross
of the Order of the Bath (25 June 2015)
Ireland: Honorary Degree from NUI Galway (15
July 2015)
Romania: Collar of the Order of the Star of
Romania (22 June 2016)
Belgium : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold,
2016
Sweden: Knight of the Order of the Seraphim,
(5 October 2016)
Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross in the Order
of the Netherlands Lion, 2017.
Netherlands: Honorary doctorate of the Maastricht
University, 2017.
Slovakia: Grand Cross or (1st Class) of the
Order of the White Double Cross (27 March
2017)
== References ==
== External links ==
