VZCZCXRO9679
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHDF #0048/01 3411738
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071738Z DEC 09
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0248
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHDF/AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF 0266

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSSELDORF 000048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL GM
SUBJECT: GERMAN POLITICAL ICON COUNT OTTO LAMBSDORFF PASSES AWAY 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000048  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  Germany's political establishment remains in 
shock after Count Otto Lambsdorff -- a strong force in 
transatlantic relations and one of the country's most prolific 
politicians in the post-World War Two era -- passed away on 
December 5.   Lambsdorff served as the Free Democratic Party's 
(FDP) Chairman and Economics Minister under Chancellors Helmut 
Schmidt and Helmut Kohl.  His reputation as a German proponent 
of the free market was  unrivalled.  Together with his party 
colleague Hans-Dietrich Genscher, he was the dominant force in 
the FDP from the mid-1970s to the mid 1990s.  Lambsdorff also 
made a name for himself as a staunch supporter of close U.S. - 
German ties; he was well-traveled in the United States and he 
made a point of visiting Capitol Hill and successive U.S. 
Administrations on a yearly basis. Although Lambsdorff retired 
from active politics in 1998, he served as former Chancellor 
Gerhard Schroeder's government commissioner for the compensation 
of forced laborers and was instrumental in setting up a special 
5 billion Euro fund for the compensation of Nazi victims in 
Eastern Europe in 2001.  In statements made on December 6 and 7, 
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, 
and North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) Minister-President Juergen 
Ruettgers paid tribute to Lambsdorff's merits and achievements. 
End summary. 
 
 
 
From Reich to Republic, from business to politics 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (U) A member of an old noble family from the Baltic region 
that was part of the Czarist Russian Empire, Lambsdorff was born 
in the Rhineland and grew up in Berlin.  A WWII veteran (he lost 
a leg as a 17-year old on the Italian front in 1944), he 
returned from the war eager to participate in the reconstruction 
of a new democratic Germany, making his home in NRW.  A lawyer 
by profession, Lambsdorff first pursued a successful career in 
banking and insurance before running for the Bundestag in 1972, 
where he served until 1998.  He joined the FDP in 1951 and 
served as treasurer of the party in NRW from 1968 to 1978.  This 
state party function proved to be of fateful significance for 
his later career. 
 
 
 
The longest serving Economics Minister after Erhard 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------------- 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) As economic policy spokesman for the FDP Bundestag group 
from 1972 to 1977, and then again from 1984 to 1997, Lambsdorff 
made a name for himself as an outspoken champion of the free 
market economy.  In October 1977, he was appointed Economics 
Minister in Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's second cabinet and 
continued in the same function in Schmidt's third cabinet.  In 
September 1982, he wrote a memorandum to the Chancellor (later 
known as the "Lambsdorff Paper") in which he called for and 
outlined new budgetary policy guidelines.  This paper was 
instrumental in bringing down the SPD-FDP government coalition 
and opening the way for the new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition under 
Helmut Kohl.  Lambsdorff kept his portfolio under the new 
Chancellor, but at the end of June 1984 he resigned from his 
cabinet position that he had held for almost 7 years (longer 
than any other of the 15 German Economics Ministers since 1949, 
except for the FRG's first Economics Minister, Ludwig Erhard 
(CDU)).  During his period as minister, he made it his mission 
to travel annually - if not more often - to Washington, meeting 
with USG officials and on Capitol Hill, building the personal 
relations that became his hallmark.  He was regarded in Germany 
and in the United States as a force for promoting U.S.-German 
ties. 
 
 
 
Resignation from the cabinet, followed later by election as FDP 
chairman 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶4. (U) Lambsdorff resigned as a result of a criminal 
investigation on charges of abetting tax evasion (during his 
time as FDP treasurer in NRW) in connection with dubious party 
financing deals that became public in the wake of the so-called 
"Flick scandal" of the early 1980s.  Other parties, not only the 
FDP, were involved in this scandal as well, but Lambsdorff was 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000048  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
the most prominent politician affected by this scandal and its 
aftermath.  In 1987, he was sentenced to a DM 180,000 fine by 
the Bonn regional court.  Since his integrity was never in 
doubt, he remained active in politics, and in 1988 was elected 
the FDP's national chairman.  He was re-elected to that a 
position several times before he retired as chairman in 1993, 
but carried on (together with Genscher and former German Federal 
President Walter Scheel) as honorary chairman of the FDP. 
 
 
 
Commissioner for Forced Laborer compensation and chairman of 
Naumann Foundation 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U) As an elder statesman, Lambsdorff continued to play an 
important role in Germany's political scenery, even after he 
retired from the Bundestag in 1998.  He served as chairman of 
the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a political foundation closely 
affiliated with the FDP, from 1995 to 2006.  In 1999, 
then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder asked Lambsdorff to take over 
as the government's commissioner for the compensation of forced 
laborers.  It was mostly thanks to Lambsdorff's negotiating 
skills that it was possible to set up a special 5 billion Euro 
fund for the compensation of such Nazi victims in Eastern Europe 
in 2001. 
 
 
 
Germany's Political Elite Pays Tribute to Lambsdorff 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
--------- 
 
 
 
¶6.  (U) In public statements on December 6 and 7, Chancellor 
Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, and NRW 
Minister-President Juergen Ruettgers paid tribute to 
Lambsdorff's merits and achievements.  Merkel said Lambsdorff 
"had a tremendous influence on German economic policies for many 
years and will be remembered as one of the great personalities 
of our social market economy."  Westerwelle and Ruettgers spoke 
in a similar vein.  Ruettgers praised Lambsdorff's "ability to 
explain complicated economic contexts and facts in a simple, yet 
powerful language."  Lambsdorff is survived by his wife 
Alexandra and three children from a previous marriage. 
 
 
 
¶7. (U) The Ambassador is sending a letter of condolence to 
Countess Lambsdorff and we recommend the Department do the same. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
WEINER