View source for Richard Stücklen

{{Short description|German politician (1916–2002)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Richard Stücklen
| image               = KAS-Stücklen, Richard-Bild-908-1 (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Stücklen in 1972
| office              = [[President of the Bundestag]] <br /> {{nobold|[[West Germany]]}}
| term_start          = 31 May 1979
| term_end            = 29 March 1983
| predecessor         = [[Karl Carstens]]
| successor           = [[Rainer Barzel]]
| office1             = [[Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications|Federal Minister of Post and Telecommunications]]
| term_start1         =  29 October 1957
| term_end1           =  30 November 1966
| predecessor1        = [[Ernst Lemmer]]
| successor1          = [[Werner Dollinger]]
| office2             = Member of the [[Bundestag]]
| term_start2         =  1 February 1952
| term_end2           =  18 August 1970
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1916|8|20|| df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Heideck]], Germany
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2002|5|2|1916|8|20|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Weißenburg in Bayern]], Germany
| party               = [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|CSU]]
| children            = 
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = 
}}
'''Richard Stücklen''' (20 August 1916 – 2 May 2002) was a German politician of the [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|Christian Social Union]] (CSU). He had previously been a member of the NSDAP (1939–1945). From 1957 to 1966, he served as Federal Minister for Post and Communication. A member of the [[Bundestag|German parliament]] for more than 40 years, he served as the seventh [[president of the Bundestag]] from 1979 to 1983.

==Early life and career==

Stücklen was born in [[Heideck]]. After an apprenticeship, he worked as an electrician while studying engineering in a correspondence course. He was drafted into the [[Reichsarbeitsdienst]] in 1936 and later into the [[Wehrmacht]], where he served as a soldier in [[World War II]] from 1940 to 1943, when he was released as unfit for service due to a knee injury. He then worked in the electrical industry and was able to finish his training as an [[electrical engineer]] in [[Mittweida]], after which he became a departmental manager at [[AEG (German company)|AEG]]. After 1945, he worked in his parents' locksmithery at Heideck. He co-founded the ''BMS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG'' engineering company in 1952 and was a company associate until 1989.

==Political career==
Stücklen joined the [[Nazi Party]] in 1939.<ref name="Deutsche Biographie">{{cite web | title=Stücklen, Richard | website=Deutsche Biographie | url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz129273.html | language=de | access-date=28 July 2021}}</ref> After the end of World War II in 1945, Stücklen was one of the founders of the CSU in Heideck and in [[Hilpoltstein]]. He was elected to the [[Bundestag]] in 1949 as representative of the electoral district of Weißenburg.<ref name="CSU-Landesgruppe" /> He was the youngest member of the first Bundestag<ref name="thierse">{{in lang|de}} [http://www.bundestag.de/parlament/praesidium/reden/2002/010a.html Speech] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003125427/http://www.bundestag.de/parlament/praesidium/reden/2002/010a.html |date=3 October 2006 }} by [[Wolfgang Thierse]] on the occasion of Stücklen's death.</ref> and stayed a directly elected member of the Bundestag (first representing Weißenburg, later [[Roth (district)|Roth]]) for eleven legislative periods until the end of 1990, longer than any other member before or after him.<ref name="thierse" />

Stücklen was part of a group of parliamentarians who unsuccessfully proposed changing the German voting system to [[Plurality voting system|plurality voting]] in 1955.

After the 1957 Federal elections, Stücklen became Federal Minister for Post and Communication in [[Konrad Adenauer]]'s cabinet on 29 October 1957.<ref name="Spiegel 1964">{{cite web | title=Richard Stücklen | website=DER SPIEGEL | date=4 August 1964 | url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/richard-stuecklen-a-a882acff-0002-0001-0000-000046174841 | language=de | access-date=28 July 2021}}</ref> He was the youngest German Federal minister at that time. He kept his post in the cabinets of [[Ludwig Erhard]]. On 1 December 1966, Stücklen left office and was replaced by [[Werner Dollinger]] in [[Kurt Georg Kiesinger]]'s [[grand coalition]] cabinet. Between 1967 and 1976, he was chairman of the CSU parliamentary group and deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU group.<ref name="CSU-Landesgruppe">{{cite web | title=Richard Stücklen – ein Parlamentarier der ersten Stunde | website=CSU-Landesgruppe | url=https://www.csu-landesgruppe.de/themen/gesundheit-familie-und-gesellschaft/richard-stuecklen-ein-parlamentarier-der-ersten-stunde | language=de | access-date=28 July 2021}}</ref>

After the 1976 Federal elections, where he ran as a potential minister in a possible [[Helmut Kohl]] cabinet, he was elected vice president of the Bundestag on 14 December 1976. Shortly after the [[Bundesversammlung (Germany)|Bundesversammlung]] had elected [[Karl Carstens]] as [[President of Germany]], Stücklen became his successor as president of the Bundestag.<ref name="Deutscher Bundestag" /> After the 1983 elections, [[Rainer Barzel]] became president of the parliament, and Stücklen returned to his vice presidential post which he held until he quit parliament on 20 December 1990.<ref name="Geschichte der CDU 2019">{{cite web | title=Richard Stücklen | website=Geschichte der CDU | date=26 August 2019 | url=https://www.kas.de/de/web/geschichte-der-cdu/personen/biogramm-detail/-/content/richard-stuecklen | language=de | access-date=28 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="Deutscher Bundestag">{{cite web | title=Dr. h.c. Richard Stücklen (CDU/CSU) 1979 – 1983 | website=Deutscher Bundestag | url=https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/geschichte/bundestagspraesidenten_seit_1949/stuecklen-244854 | language=de | access-date=28 July 2021}}</ref>

One of the most famous Bundestag sessions presided over by Stücklen was that of 18 October 1984, when Stücklen excluded [[German Green Party|Green Party]] member Jürgen Reents from the session for calling Helmut Kohl "bought by [[Friedrich Karl Flick|Flick]]". [[Christa Nickels]] then requested an interruption. Stücklen turned her microphone off, which prompted [[Joschka Fischer]] to address him, "With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole", for which he in turn was excluded by Stücklen. Fischer apologized to Stücklen two days later.<ref name="Blickpunkt">{{in lang|de}} Günter Pursch, ''[http://www.bundestag.de/bp/1999/bp9907/9907056.html Auch Abgeordnete sind nur Menschen] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212151802/http://www.bundestag.de/bp/1999/bp9907/9907056.html |date=12 February 2006 }}''.</ref>

==Personal life and death==
Stücklen was married and had two children.<ref name="Spiegel 1964" /> He died in 2002 in [[Weißenburg in Bayern]] from a [[heart disease]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Works==
*{{in lang|de}} Stücklen, Richard: ''Mit Humor und Augenmaß''. {{ISBN|3-00-008155-0}} (autobiography)

==Literature==
*[[Michael F. Feldkamp]] (ed.), ''Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt – Funktion – Person.'' 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-7892-8201-0}}

== External links ==
* {{DNB portal|118619659|TYP=}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stucklen, Richard}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
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[[Category:People from Roth (district)]]
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