Hans-Jochen Vogel

Hans-Jochen Vogel (3 February 192626 July 2020) was a German lawyer and a politician for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as Mayor of Munich from 1960 to 1972, winning the 1972 Summer Olympics for the city and Governing Mayor of West Berlin in 1981, the only German ever to lead two cities with a million+ inhabitants. He was Federal Minister of Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development from 1972 to 1974, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1974 to 1981. He served as leader of the SPD in the Bundestag from 1983 to 1991, and as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1987 to 1991. In 1993, he co-founded the organisation Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie (Against Oblivion – For Democracy). He was a member of the National Ethics Council of Germany from its beginning in 2001. Early life and professional career Vogel was born in Göttingen in the Province of Hanover, Germany on 3 February 1926. He attended the in Göttingen, and from 1935 the in Gießen, Hesse where he achieved the Abitur in 1943. He was an active Catholic and joined the Hitler Youth and even became one of its squad leaders (Scharführer). He was not critical of the Nazi regime and later recalled: Vogel volunteered for service in the German Army (Wehrmacht) in July 1943, aged 17, in the latter stages of World War II. Twice wounded at the Italian Front, Vogel was an Unteroffizier at the end of the war, when he was captured by the Americans. On his return from prison camp he worked as a transport worker for a short while, before he was able to study law in Marburg and Munich. He received his doctorate ("magna cum laude") in 1950. His professional career began in February 1952, when he became a junior official (Assessor) in the . At the age of 28 he was a county court judge, and in the following year he was appointed chairman of a commission in the Bavarian Minister-President's office which was to review Bavarian law for a new survey published by the Bavarian state parliament. The Munich City Council made him their legal secretary (Rechtsreferent) in 1958.