page_title: Gerhard Jahn
section_title: Political offices
hierarchical_section_title: Gerhard Jahn / Political offices
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Bundespräsident Karl Carstens empfängt vor seiner Entscheidung über Neuwahlen als Vertreter der SPD deren Vorsitzenden Willy Brandt und den parlamentarischen Geschäftsführer der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion, Gerhard Jahn.
context_page_description: Gerhard Jahn was a German politician and a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1967 to 1969, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1969 to 1974.
context_section_description: Jahn was elected to the Federal German parliament, Bundestag, in 1957, where he was a member until 1990. He served on various parliamentary committees at the Bundestag. In 1960 he was elected to chair committee on restitution in the public service. Alfred Frenzel, who was Jahn's predecessor was exposed as a KGB spy. He represented the SPD in various legal cases.
  In addition to his federal offices, he was chairmen of the SPD-fraction of the Marburg town parliament since 1962.
  In 1963, while Jahn was a member of the parliamentary committee for defense, he involved himself in a scandal by handing over a confidential document to the press, which proved that the former minister for defense, Franz Josef Strauß, had knowingly made untrue statements.
  Jahn was Parliamentary State Secretary to Minister for Foreign Affairs Willy Brandt from 1967–69. When Brandt became Chancellor of Germany in 1969, he selected Jahn as Federal Minister of Justice. While in this position, he initiated reforms of the laws on marriage and divorce as well as on abortion. On the latter issue, Jahn favoured a modified legalising abortion in several exceptional cases - the so-called Indikationsregelung, but his cabinet colleagues insisted on a general legalisation during the first trimester. This Fristenregelung was passed by parliament but was later held up by the Constitutional Court, so that Jahn's position eventually prevailed. Jahn decided to withdraw from the office when chancellor Brandt resigned in 1974.
caption: Gerhard Jahn (right) with Willy Brandt and Karl Carstens
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