Biography
He left high school in 1948 with a secondary school leaving certificate. After completing an apprenticeship as a publishing bookseller in Wuppertal from 1949 to 1951, he attended the bookseller school in Cologne. During this time, Rau was already politically active and worked as a journalist for the magazine "Jugend in Wuppertal". From 1952 to 1954 he worked as a publishing bookseller in his training company in Wuppertal. From 1953 he became an editor and representative at the "Luther- und Eckart-Verlag" in Witten. Meanwhile, in December 1952, Rau joined the "All-German People's Party" (GVP) of the later Federal President Gustav Heinemann in protest against the rearmament of Germany. Shortly afterwards he became district and local chairman of Wuppertal. In 1954 he became managing director of the "Jugenddienst-Verlag" in Wuppertal. He held this office until 1967, and from 1962 he was a board member and from 1965 director of the publishing house. In 1957 the GVP dissolved and Johannes Rau became a member of the social democratic SPD, which he chaired in Wuppertal from 1958 to 1962.
From 1958 he was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament for the SPD and from 1962 to 1970 he was a member of the board of the SPD state parliamentary group. He also chaired the SPD parliamentary group from 1967 to 1970. From 1966 to 1974 he was a member of the executive committee of the German Evangelical Church Congress and from 1968 to 1999 a member of the SPD party executive at the federal level. In 1969, Johannes Rau was elected mayor of the city of Wuppertal. However, he only held this position for a year. In 1970 he became Minister for Science and Research in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Rau made headlines when, on October 10, 1972, he dismissed the performance artist and professor of fine arts Joseph Beuys from the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf from his position with immediate effect. The trigger was that Beuys occupied the secretariat of the Düsseldorf Art Academy in order to make it possible for anyone who wanted to study art at the academy. In 1978, Rau was elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1982 he married Christina Delius, a granddaughter of former Federal President Gustav Heinemann.
This relationship resulted in three children, Anna Christina (1983), Philipp Immanuel (1985) and Laura Helene (1986). From 1982 to 1983 and 1994 to 1995, Johannes Rau was President of the Federal Council in his office as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. On September 15, 1985, he was nominated by the SPD for the first time as candidate for chancellor for the 1987 federal election. However, he firmly rejected a possible coalition with the Greens. Johannes Rau was defeated by the incumbent Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Due to a cancerous tumor, Rau had his left kidney removed in July 1992. After his recovery in November of the same year, he was able to return to work. On September 13, 1993, he was nominated for the office of Federal President for the first time by the SPD party executive. However, in the election for Federal President by the Federal Assembly on May 23, 1994, he was defeated by the Union's Christian Democrat Roman Herzog. For the fifth time in a row, Rau was elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in July 1995, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Evangelical Theological Faculty at the Ruhr University in Bochum.
In March 1998 he announced his political withdrawal from the North Rhine-Westphalian offices. In May he resigned as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and state chairman of the SPD. On November 2nd of the same year, Johannes Rau was nominated by the SPD party executive committee for the second time as the party's candidate for the office of Federal President. On May 23, 1999, Johannes Rau was elected the 8th Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal Assembly in the Reichstag building in Berlin. He was sworn into office on July 1, 1999 in Bonn. During his term in office, which was not accompanied by scandals or outstanding appeals, he made a name for himself as a compassionate head of state. Johannes Rau was very well received thanks to his clear stance and his commitment to the immigration law. In September 2003, Rau announced that he would no longer run for the office of Federal President in the next election on May 23, 2004. On March 23, 2004, Johannes Rau broke off his trip to Africa to visit German soldiers in Djibouti. According to an intelligence report, this was preceded by a planned assassination attempt on a high-ranking European representative.
In the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Dortmund. On April 23, 2004, Rau returned from his last state visit to Hungary as Federal President. Johannes Rau made a total of 76 trips abroad as head of state. Johannes Rau's term as Federal President ended on July 1, 2004. His successor in this office was Horst Köhler. On June 22, 2005, Rau was awarded the "Kulturgroschen" by the German Cultural Council. This was followed in September of the same year by the Gustav Adolf Prize for reconciliation and understanding between ethnic groups regardless of their religion or denomination. In the same month, the former Federal President was awarded the Karl Barth Prize from the Union of Evangelical Churches for his social commitment.
The politician had to undergo two serious operations after leaving the office of Federal President. He was no longer able to attend a reception given by Federal President Horst Köhler for his birthday on January 16th in Berlin.
