(1932-10-28) 28 October 1932 (age 91) Dresden, Germany
Political party
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
Alma mater
University of Cologne
Profession
Lawyer
Website
gerhart-baum.de
Gerhart Rudolf Baum (born 28 October 1932) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and a lawyer. From 1978 to 1982 he served as Federal Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Early life and education
Gerhart Baum was born to a German father and a Russian mother. His paternal ancestors, whose roots lay in Plauen in the Saxon Vogtland, originally worked as craftsmen before later generations were able to pursue academic professions. His mother was born in Moscow; her own mother was from Łódź and of Polish ethnicity and her Ukrainian-born father was originally from Kharkiv.[1] In 1917, her family had fled from Russia to Germany as a result of the October Revolution.[2] In his childhood Baum was a forced member of the Hitler Youth. After the bombing of Dresden, his mother left the city in February 1945 and fled with her three children to Lake Tegernsee in Bavaria. His father, who had fought on the Eastern Front during the war, was captured by the Soviets and later died in captivity. In 1950, Baum's family moved to Cologne.
After graduating from school in 1953, Baum studied law at the University of Cologne and subsequently worked as a lawyer.
From 1978 until 1982, Baum served as Federal Minister of the Interior in the government of ChancellorHelmut Schmidt. During his time in office, he liberalized routine loyalty investigations of candidates for public‐service jobs, a controversial practice intended to control radical activity that had led to a profound and disruptive debate about the extent of democracy in West Germany.[4] In 1981, with the backing of economics minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff, he asked the German car industry to agree on goals to tighten emissions standards and cut fuel consumption on a voluntary basis.[5]
Between 2000 and 2001, Baum and two other lawyers together represented about three-quarters of the Air France Flight 4590 crash victims' families. In May 2001, they reached a monetary settlement for compensation from Air France.[6] According to people familiar with terms of the settlement, it was between $100 million and $125 million (114.1 million euros and 142.6 million euros), an extraordinarily high sum for a plane-crash settlement in Europe at the time.[7]
In 2006, Baum presented a press freedom award to Berliner Zeitung for its resistance to an unpopular takeover by David Montgomery’s Mecom Group.[10]
In 2009, Germany's national railway company Deutsche Bahn commissioned Baum and former justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin with investigating allegations according to which the company had, in violation of privacy laws and corporate guidelines repeatedly and on a large scale compared personal data of its employees with those of suppliers, in a bid to uncover possible corruption.[11]
In 2016, Baum joined members of the Green Party, lawyers, a journalist and a doctor in bringing suits against Germany's 2009 antiterrorism law before the Federal Constitutional Court, arguing that covert surveillance, particularly in private homes and in the intimacy of bedrooms or bathrooms, could entangle innocent third parties. In a 6-to-2 vote, the court ruled that the antiterrorism laws were partly unconstitutional and demanded tighter control over surveillance.[12]
In 2022, shortly before the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre, Dutch lawyers Carry and Alexander Knoops asked Baum to intervene in the negotiations between the victims’ families and the government of ChancellorOlaf Scholz, which eventually resulted in a compensation offer totalling 28 million euros ($28 million).[13][14]
Die Finanzkrise und ihre Folgen für die Bevölkerung. Anforderungen an einen verbesserten Verbraucherschutz, in: Hecht, Janina; Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y., eds. (2011). Herausforderung Demokratie. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG. doi:10.5771/9783845232539. ISBN 978-3-8452-3253-9.
Die Grundrechte im Spannungsverhältnis von Sicherheit und Freiheit, in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y., ed. (2009). 60 Jahre Grundgesetz. Nomos. doi:10.5771/9783845220345. ISBN 978-3-8452-2034-5.
References
^Hirsch, Burkhard (2016). Der Baum und der Hirsch. Ullstein Ebooks. pp. 14–15. ISBN 9783843713115.
^"Die mussten Mut haben". www.sueddeutsche.de. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
^Baum, Gerhart (15 May 2021). "Eine Villa am See – dort erwarteten wir die Amerikaner". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
^John Vicocur (19 January 1979), Bonn Eases Loyalty Checks for National Employment The New York Times.
^John Tagliabue (25 August 1981), Auto Exhaust Standard is Disputed in Germany The New York Times.
^Daniel Michaels (15 May 2001), Relatives of Concorde Victims Accept Monetary Settlement: Airlines, Insurers May Pay As Much as $125 Million The Wall Street Journal.
^Situation of human rights in the Sudan United Nations, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Gerhart Baum, submitted in accordance with Commission resolution 2001/18.
^UN Human rights rapporteur in Sudan BBC News, 11 March 2001.
^Katy Duke (4 May 2006), German paper hailed for fighting Montgomery takeover The Guardian.
^Susanne Amann (14 May 2009), Repairing Spying Scandal Damage: New Era of Openness Dawns at Deutsche Bahn Der Spiegel.
^Yossi Melman (5 September 2022), How Germany Put Families of Munich Olympics Victims Through Their Own Ordeal Haaretz.
^Miranda Murray (2 September 2022), Germany agrees to $28 mln in compensation for families of Munich Olympics victims Reuters.
^"Über uns — Kuratoriumsmitglieder". Kunststiftung NRW (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^"Die Stiftung – Stiftung Menschenrechte". Stiftung Menschenrechte – Wir unterstützen couragierte Frauen und Männer, die sich mit beispielhaftem Engagement für die Menschenrechte einsetzen und Gefährdete in Schutz nehmen – vor politischer Willkür und staatlichen Repressalien. (in German). 2 June 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^"Herzlichen Glückwunsch, lieber Gerhart Baum! : Theodor Heuss Stiftung". Theodor Heuss Stiftung (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^"Präsidium". Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen e.V. (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^Corso, Ivana Dal (5 March 2018). "VW lehnt Gleichbehandlung europäischer Kunden ab". Baum Reiter & Collegen (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^"Erich-Fromm-Preis 2009 geht an den früheren Innenminister Gerhart R. Baum". nmz - neue musikzeitung (in German). 4 March 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^"Rede: Ordensverleihung an Gerhart Baum". Der Bundespräsident (in German). Retrieved 19 July 2023.
External links
Media related to Gerhart Baum at Wikimedia Commons
Speaker: Marieluise Beck-Oberdorf, Petra Kelly, Otto Schily until 3 April 1984; Annemarie Borgmann, Waltraud Schoppe, Antje Vollmer until 30./31. January 1985; Sabine Bard, Hannegret Hönes, Christian Schmidt until 1 February 1986; Annemarie Borgmann, Hannegret Hönes, Ludger Volmer until 18 July 1986); Willi Hoss (8 September 1986)
Speaker: Thomas Ebermann, Bärbel Rust, Waltraud Schoppe until 26 January 1988; Helmut Lippelt, Regula Schmidt-Bott, Christa Vennegerts until 30 January 1989, Helmut Lippelt, Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin, Antje Vollmer until 15 January 1990; Willi Hoss, Waltraud Schoppe (until 21 June 1990), Marianne Birthler (from 4 October 1990), Antje Vollmer
Media related to Gerhart Baum at Wikimedia Commons
German Empire (1871–1918) 
Weimar Republic (1918–33) 
Nazi Germany (1933–45) 
German Democratic Republic1 (1949–90) 
Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present) 
