Roman Herzog

Roman Herzog
Roman Herzog in 2012
President of Germany
In office 1 July 1994 – 30 June 1999
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl Gerhard Schröder
Preceded by	Richard von Weizsäcker
Succeeded by	Johannes Rau
President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
In office 16 November 1987 – 30 June 1994
Preceded by	Wolfgang Zeidler
Succeeded by	Jutta Limbach
Personal details
Born	(1934-04-05)5 April 1934 Landshut, Bavaria, Germany
Died	10 January 2017(2017-01-10) (aged 82) Jagsthausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Christian Democratic Union
Spouse(s)	Christiane Krauß (m. 1958–2000; her death) Alexandra Freifrau von Berlichingen (m. 2001)
Children	2
Alma mater	Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Profession	Lawyer
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Roman Herzog (5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as President of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elected after the reunification of Germany. He previously served as a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, and he was the President of the court 1987–1994. Before his appointment as a judge he was a professor of law. He received the 1997 Charlemagne Prize.

Roman Herzog was born in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany, in 1934 to a Protestant family. He studied law in Munich, completing his doctoral studies in 1958.

He worked as an assistant at the University of Munich until 1964, where he also passed his second juristic state exam. For his paper Die Wesensmerkmale der Staatsorganisation in rechtlicher und entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Sicht ("Characteristics of state organization from a juristic and developmental-historical viewpoint"), he was awarded the title of professor in 1964, and taught at the University of Munich until 1966. He then taught constitutional law and political science as a full professor at the Free University of Berlin. In 1969, he accepted a chair of public law at the German University of Administrative Sciences, serving as university president in 1971–72.

Herzog's political career began in 1973, as a representative of the state (Land) of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Federal government in Bonn. He served as State Minister for Culture and Sports in the Baden-Württemberg State Government led by Minister-President Lothar Späth from 1978. In 1980 he was elected to the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg and took over the State Ministry of the Interior.