Roman Herzog, Germany’s president in the 1990s, dies at 82
Herzog was one of the first leaders to address Germany’s resistance to reform and its growing economic stagnation
Roman Herzog, who as president pressed Germany to embrace economic reform in the 1990s and also stressed the importance of remembering the Nazi Holocaust, has died. He was 82.
Current President Joachim Gauck announced Herzog’s death on Tuesday, without giving details. In a message to Herzog’s widow, he described the former head of state as “a distinctive personality” who “advocated readiness for reform and at the same time stood for preserving the tried and tested”.
Herzog, a jovial Bavarian, served as the chief justice of Germany’s highest court before winning the presidency in 1994, four years after reunification.
He was one of the first leaders to address Germany’s resistance to reform and its growing economic stagnation at a time when veteran conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s 16-year tenure was coming to a close. Germany was struggling with double-digit unemployment, amid worries that its labour market was too inflexible.
Herzog drew an unfavourable comparison between the dynamism of Asia and the stagnation in Germany, pointing to problems with bureaucracy and regulation, and a resistance to change.