page_title: Richard von Weizsäcker
section_title: Post-presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Richard von Weizsäcker / Post-presidency
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Alt-Bundespräsident Richard von Weizsäcker beim Signieren in Köln, 2009English: Former German President Richard von Weizsäcker authographs his books in Cologne, 2009Русский: Бывший президент Германии Рихард фон Вайцзеккер представляет свою книгу в Кёльне. 2009 г.
context_page_description: Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German politician, who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobility, he took his first public offices in the Evangelical Church in Germany.
  A member of the CDU since 1954, he was elected as member of parliament in 1969. He continued to hold a mandate as member of the Bundestag until he became Governing Mayor of West Berlin, following the 1981 state elections. In 1984, Richard von Weizsäcker was elected as President of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1989 he was re-elected for a second term. As yet, he is, together with Theodor Heuss, one of only two Presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany, who have served two complete five-year-terms. During his second term as president on 3 October 1990, the reorganized five states of the former German Democratic Republic and East Berlin joined the Federal Republic of Germany, which made von Weizsäcker the first democratically legitimized head of state of Germany as a whole since Reich President Paul von Hindenburg had died in office on 2 August 1934.
context_section_description: As an elder statesman, Weizsäcker long remained involved in politics and charitable affairs in Germany after his retirement as president. He chaired a commission established by the Social Democratic-Green government of the day for reforming the Bundeswehr. Along with Henry Kissinger, in 1994 he supported Richard Holbrooke in creating the American Academy in Berlin. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
  Weizsäcker served as a member of the Advisory Council of Transparency International. In a letter addressed to Nigeria's military ruler Sani Abacha in 1996, he called for the immediate release of General Olusegun Obasanjo, the former head of state of Nigeria, who had become the first military ruler in Africa to keep his promise to hand over power to an elected civilian government but was later sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
  Weizsäcker also served on many international committees.  He was chairman of the Independent Working Group on the future of the United Nations and was one of three "Wise Men" appointed by European Commission President Romano Prodi to consider the future of the European Union. From 2003 until his death, he was a member of the Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property, led by the former head of the Federal Constitutional Court, Jutta Limbach.  In November 2014, Weizsäcker retired as chairman of the Bergedorf Round Table, a discussion forum on foreign policy issues.
caption: Richard von Weizsäcker in 2009
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