Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia
Johannes Rau took which position from Sep 1978 to Nov 1982?
Johannes Rau Johannes Rau ( ; 16 January 193127 January 2006 ) was a German politician ( SPD ) . He was President of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998 . In the latter role , he also served as President of the Bundesrat in 1982/83 and in 1994/1995 . Education and work . Rau was born in the Barmen part of Wuppertal , Rhine Province , as the third of five children . His family was strongly Protestant . As a schoolboy , Rau was active in the Confessing Church , a circle of the German Protestant Church which resisted Nazism . Rau left school in 1949 and worked as a publisher , especially with the Protestant Youth Publishing House . Political career . Rau was a member of the All-German Peoples Party ( GVP ) , which was founded by Gustav Heinemann . The party was known for proposing German reunification from 1952 until it was disbanded in 1957 . In 1958 , the pacifist Rau and his political mentor , Gustav Heinemann , joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD ) , where he was active in the Wuppertal chapter . He served as deputy chairman of the SPD party of Wuppertal and was elected later on to the City Council ( 1964–1978 ) , where he served as chairman of the SPD Group ( 1964–1967 ) and later as Mayor ( 1969–1970 ) . In 1958 , Rau was elected for the first time as member of the Landtag ( state parliament ) of North Rhine-Westphalia . In 1967 , he became chairman of the SPD fraction in the Landtag , and in 1970 , he was Minister of Science and Education in the cabinet of Minister President Heinz Kühn . He soon gained a reputation as a reformer . As part of the mass education campaign of the 1970s , he founded five universities , each at different sites , in North Rhine-Westphalia and initiated Germanys first distance learning university at Hagen ( modelled on the British Open University ) . In 1977 , Rau became Chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia SPD and , in 1978 , Minister President of the state , which he remained until 1998 , with four successful elections for the SPD , which became strongest party in the Landtag each time and gained an absolute majority three times , in 1980 , 1985 , 1990 and finally 1995 . From 1995 onwards , Rau led an SPD-Greens coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia . Rau twice served as President of the Bundesrat in 1982/83 and 1994/95 . In 1987 , Rau was his partys candidate to become chancellor of Germany for the SPD , but he lost the elections against Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats ( CDU ) . In 1994 , Rau was a candidate to become President of Germany but lost to Roman Herzog . In 1998 , Rau stepped down from his positions as SPD chairman and Minister President , and on 23 May 1999 , he was elected President of Germany by the Federal Assembly of Germany to succeed Roman Herzog ( CDU ) . On 1 July 2004 , he was succeeded by Horst Köhler . In common with all other Federal presidents except for Heinemann , who had not wished to be seen off in this manner , Rau was honored by a Großer Zapfenstreich which , at his request , included the hymn Jesus bleibet meine Freude ( literally that Jesus remain my Joy , but commonly Jesu , Joy of Mans Desiring ) . During 2000 , Rau became the first German head of state to address the Knesset , the Israeli parliament , in German . The controversial step prompted some Israeli delegates to walk out . However , Israeli President Moshe Katsav supported and praised him for bridging the gap between the two states . Rau had a deep and lifelong commitment to bringing reconciliation between Germany and its past . Death . Rau had a long history of heart disease and died 11 days after his 75th birthday on 27 January 2006 . The funeral took place on 7 February following a funeral act of state on the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin in the closest of family and friends . Motto and maxim . The maxim of Rau was to reconcile , not divide . As his personal motto , Rau adopted the Confessing Church dictum teneo , quia teneor ( I hold because I am held ) . In his acceptance speech after his election , Rau claimed A patriot I will be because a patriot is someone who loves his fatherland , a nationalist is someone who despises the fatherlands of the others . The quote can be attributed to the French writer Romain Gary . Prizes and medals . Rau was awarded fifteen honorary doctorates . In 2001 , he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice . Private life . Rau was known as a practising Christian ( sometimes known as , Brother John , in ridicule of his intense Christian position ; however , he sometimes used this term himself ) . He held lay positions in and was a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , a member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany . On 9 August 1982 , Rau married the political scientist Christina Delius ( born 1956 ) . Christina Rau is a granddaughter of her husbands mentor , Gustav Heinemann , former President of Germany . The couple had three children : Anna Christina , born 1983 , Philip Immanuel , born 1985 and Laura Helene , born 1986 . Since 1995 Rau was aware of a dangerous aneurysm in his abdominal aorta , but declined an operation out of respect for his office and the upcoming election as president . On 23 July 2000 , the operation took place at the University Hospital of Essen . On 18 August 2004 , he had to undergo serious heart surgery , in which an artificial heart valve was inserted . Only two months later ( 19 October 2004 ) , a hematoma in the abdominal cavity was surgically removed . After leaving office , Rau lived with his family in the federal capital , Berlin . However , they also kept a house in Wuppertal . Honours . - : Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Foreign honours . - : Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria ( 2004 ) - : Collar of the Order of the White Lion - : Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana - : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Falcon ( 1 July 2003 ) - : 2nd Class , then , 1st Class with Chain of the Order of the Three Stars - : Order of the White Eagle - : Grand Cross ( or 1st Class ) of the Order of the White Double Cross ( 2001 ) - : First Class of the Order of the State of Republic of Turkey ( 2000 ) - : Knight of the Order of the Elephant ( 24 April 2002 ) - : Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic ( 8 November 2002 ) - Olympic Orde