Wolfgang Böhmer: Ex-Prime Minister Saxony-Anhalt is dead

Wolfgang Böhmer embodied the state father like no other prime minister in Saxony-Anhalt. The former chief physician ruled with a quiet hand – self -expression or even federal political engagement were not his strengths. However, the self -confident doctor enforced unpopular decisions in the face of empty state treasures. Now the CDU politician, who ruled in Magdeburg from 2002 to 2011, died at the age of 89.

Shortly before his election, it was actually considered unthinkable that Böhmer would make it into the state chancellery. Although he had been a member of the state parliament since 1990 and from 1991 to 1994 it was only finance and then social minister in a CDU/FDP government. However, nobody had actually believed that the last big leap to replace the SPD minority government tolerated by the PDS under Reinhard Höppner.

Böhmer recalled the bad prospects at the time in the book “On a word, Mr. Böhmer”, published for his 80th birthday. “After I had persuaded myself to do it, I also wanted to know. If you don’t have a minimum level of ambition, you should stay at home better,” said Böhmer. In retrospect, he included the reduction in the unemployment rate that was then 20 percent.

“Saxony-Anhalt had had the greatest unemployment in Germany for 96 months without a single interruption,” Böhmer recalled. “And we weren’t very unsuccessful either. At some point we were no longer at the bottom, but at least to the second last place.”

Böhmer did not have a deep rooting in his party, even with the CDU parliamentary group, he was often in dispute. “This is a type of type. Stammtisch policy was never my style,” said Böhmer. Even after his term, he was not always convenient for the governing – although he mostly held back on current issues.

With his departure from the office of prime minister, he had largely left politics behind, even if he was still the commission to deal with the Stasi files. “You can also get used to doing nothing,” said Böhmer a year after leaving the German Press Agency. “I’ll slam a little in front of myself.”

In June 2017, the visibly moved Böhmer returned to the state parliament – the 25th birthday of the state constitution was celebrated. “Anyone who has lived in a dictatorship will want more and more democracy,” he said. Anyone who has experienced lack of freedom will protect freedom, even if it also means uncertainty. Anyone who was born into freedom will want to cross borders. “There will be no freedom without internal conflicts in the future either.”

In recent years, Wolfgang Böhmer had largely withdrawn from the public. For his 85th birthday in 2021, he said: “I am not doing very well in terms of health.” That is due to age. In 2019, one of his few public dates included a lecture on national history at the University of Magdeburg. When asked whether he regretted not to be asked for advice, Böhmer said miserably: “I also got used to the fact that those who are now in business are all smarter than me.”

The long -time gynecologist who had born thousands of babies had gone to politics after the turn. As a gynecology chief doctor in Wittenberg, he had already had a different career. The chief physician attitude could never completely take off as a politician, as was noted according to cabinet sessions, in which Böhmer would be happy to perform in dealing with ministers. Again and again Böhmer also felt misunderstood or wrongly reproduced.

Böhmer did not start again for the 2011 state election – and passed the staff on to his successor Reiner Haseloff (CDU). Böhmer was widowed and married a second time in 2004, gave his long -time partner Brigitte Klein the yes. Böhmer and the nurse had met in the hospital in which Böhmer was a chief physician before his political career.