Back Joachim Gauck AF Joachim Gauck ALS يواخيم غاوك Arabic يواخيم جاوك ARZ Joachim Gauck AST Yoahim Qauk AZ Joachim Gauck BAR Ёахім Гаўк BE Йоахим Гаук Bulgarian Joachim Gauck BR

Joachim Gauck

Joachim Gauck
Gauck in 2012
President of Germany
In office
18 March 2012 – 18 March 2017
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byChristian Wulff
Succeeded byFrank-Walter Steinmeier
Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records
In office
4 October 1990 – 10 October 2000
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byMarianne Birthler
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Bundestag
for Volkskammer
In office
3 October 1990 – 4 October 1990
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byVera Lengsfeld
Member of the Volkskammer
for Rostock
In office
5 April 1990 – 2 October 1990
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1940-01-24) 24 January 1940 (age 84)
Rostock, Nazi Germany
Political partyIndependent (since 1990)
Other political
affiliations		New Forum/Alliance 90 (1989–1990)
Spouse
Gerhild Radtke
​
​
(m. 1959; sep. 1991)​
Domestic partnerDaniela Schadt (since 2000)
Children4
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (German: [joˈʔaxɪm ˈɡaʊk] ⓘ; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician 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.[1][2][3][4]

During the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, Gauck 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 having been chosen by the Bundestag to be the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. This made him the Bundestag member with the shortest tenure. He also served as Federal Commissioner from 1990 to 2000, earning recognition as a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy advocate" for exposing the crimes of the communist secret police.[5][6][7][8]

He was nominated as the candidate of the SPD and the Greens in the 2010 presidential election but lost in the third ballot 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",[9] while the Bild called him "the president of hearts".[10][11][12] Later, after Wulff stepped down, Gauck was elected as president with 991 of 1,228 votes in the Federal Convention in the 2012 German presidential 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,[13][14][15][16][17] 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.[1] As president, he was a proponent of "an enlightened anti-communism",[18] and he has underlined the illegitimacy of Communist rule in East Germany.[19] 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.[20][21] He has been described by Angela Merkel as a "true teacher of democracy" and a "tireless advocate of freedom, democracy, and justice".[22] 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."[23] He has received numerous honours, including the 1997 Hannah Arendt Prize. In 2022, he criticized Germany's policies towards Russia in the period after the Cold War, and said that "we should have listened to the voices of our eastern neighbours – Poles and the Baltic states as well as our Atlantic friends" when they warned about Russian aggression.[24]

  1. ^ a b Robert Coalson, Longtime Anticommunist Activist To Become Germany's Next President, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 20 February 2012
  2. ^ "German Presidential Nominee's Background Seen as an Asset", The New York Times, 20 February 2012
  3. ^ "A crucial test for Angela Merkel". FRANCE 24. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  4. ^ "Gauck's civic engagement wins him wide support". DW.DE. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  5. ^ "German media roundup: Little excitement for Wulff presidency". thelocal.de. 4 June 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  6. ^ "Politik Inland : Joachim Gauck, der Stasi-Jäger – Archiv – Westfälische Nachrichten" (in German). Wn.de. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  7. ^ Gathmann, Florian (20 February 2012). "Germany's Next President: 'I'm No Superman' – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International". Spiegel Online. Spiegel.de. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  8. ^ "Merkel Names Gauck as Unity Candidate for German Presidency". Businessweek. 8 December 2009. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  9. ^ "DER SPIEGEL 23/2010 – Inhaltsverzeichnis". Spiegel.de. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  10. ^ "Profile: Joachim Gauck, Germany's 'President of Hearts' – The Local". Thelocal.de. 1 January 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Joachim Gauck: Der "Kandidat der Herzen" – Politik Inland" (in German). Bild.de. 19 February 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  12. ^ "Vom Sieger der Herzen zum Bundespräsidenten?" (in German). MDR.DE. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  13. ^ Online, FOCUS. "Das Geheimnis um den Onkel" (in German). Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  14. ^ "Joachim Gauck: Anti-communist pastor who could turn out to be Angela Merkel's nemesis – World news, News". Belfasttelegraph.co.uk. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  15. ^ Connolly, Kate (20 June 2010). "Joachim Gauck: the dissident hero who holds the destiny of Germany in his hands". The Guardian. London.
  16. ^ Feldenkirchen, Markus (29 June 2010). "Eastern Inspiration: Gauck the Therapist Wants to Put Germany On the Couch – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International". Spiegel Online. Spiegel.de. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Rival candidate for president new headache for Merkel". Reuters. 6 June 2010.
  18. ^ Sturm, Daniel Friedrich (14 June 2013). "Gedenken: Gauck wirbt für "aufgeklärten Antikommunismus"". Die Welt (in German) – via www.welt.de.
  19. ^ "German president slams communism in provocative speech to Shanghai students on his China visit". 23 March 2016.
  20. ^ "Gauck-Buch: Plädoyer für Freiheit und Menschenrechte". Volksstimme.de. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  21. ^ "Angela Merkel backs 'German Nelson Mandela' for president". Globalpost.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference spiegel-merkel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ The Gauck File, The Wall Street Journal, 22 February 2012, p. 14
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference tvpworld was invoked but never defined (see the help page).