Joachim Gauck
b. 1940
German Protestant pastor and politician, Federal President of Germnay 2012–2017 (born 1940)
- Born
- 24 Jan 1940 · Rostock
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 24 Jan 1940BornBorn in Rostock
- 1990RoleMember of the Volkskammer
- 1990 – 2000RoleFederal Commissioner for the Stasi Records
- 1990RoleMember of the German Bundestag
- 1991AwardTheodor Heuss Medal
- 1995AwardOfficer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1997AwardHannah Arendt Prize
- 1999AwardHonorary doctorate
- 2000AwardCicero Orator Prize
- 2001AwardErich-Kästner award
- 2001AwardHonorary doctor of the University of Jena
- 2003AwardCourage Award
- 2005AwardHeinz Herbert Karry Prize
- 2005AwardHonorary doctor of the University of Augsburg
- 2008AwardThomas Dehler Prize
- 2010AwardGeschwister-Scholl-Preis
- 2012 – 2017RolePresident of Germany
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1940 – today).
- 1940 – 1945Auschwitz concentration camp
- 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
- 1941 – 1945Eastern Front
- 1941Operation Barbarossa
- 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
- 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
- 19501950 FIFA World Cup
- 1950 – 1953Korean War
- 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
- 19541954 FIFA World Cup
- 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
- 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
- 1956Suez Crisis
- 19581958 FIFA World Cup
- 1959Antarctic Treaty System
- 19621962 FIFA World Cup
- 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
- 19661966 FIFA World Cup
- 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
- 1968Prague Spring
- 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
- 19721972 Summer Olympics
- 19741974 FIFA World Cup
- 19781978 FIFA World Cup
- 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
- 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
- 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
- 19841984 Summer Olympics
- 1985Schengen Agreement
- 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
- 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 19901990 FIFA World Cup
- 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
- 19941994 FIFA World Cup
- 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
- 19981998 FIFA World Cup
- 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan
- 2003 – 2011Iraq War
- 20042004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Biography
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.
During the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, Gauck was a co-founder of the New Forum opposition movement in East Germany. Following German reunification, he was elected as a member of the Bundestag in 1990 but served for only one day before becoming the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. He served as Federal Commissioner from 1990 to 2000, earning recognition for exposing the crimes of the communist secret police.
Gauck was nominated as a candidate in the 2010 presidential election but, despite his popularity, lost in the third ballot to Christian Wulff. After Wulff stepped down, Gauck was elected as president in the 2012 German presidential election. 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 and the Declaration on Crimes of Communism. He has called for increased awareness of Communist crimes and delegitimising Communist rule in East Germany.
He is also the author and co-author of several books, including The Black Book of Communism and Freedom: A Plea (2012). He has received numerous honours, including the 1997 Hannah Arendt Prize.
Text from the Wikipedia article Joachim Gauck, CC BY-SA 4.0
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