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Dr. Richard Freiherr von Weizsäcker (Template:Audio, born April 15 1920) is a German politician (CDU). He was President of Germany from 1984 to 1994.
He was born in Stuttgart as son of the diplomat Freiherr Ernst von Weizsäcker and brother of physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and lived several years in Switzerland and Denmark due to his father's diplomatic duties. When he was 17 years old he moved to Britain and studied philosophy and history at Balliol College, Oxford, later he studied in Grenoble in France. After the outbreak of the war, he served in the Army, finally as a captain of the Reserve. He was wounded in East Prussia in 1945 and was transported home to Stuttgart. Then he continued his study of history in Göttingen, and eventually studied law. He took his first juristic state exam in 1950, and the second in 1953, and was 1955 promoted dr. juris. He married 1953 Marianne von Kretschmann; they have four children.
Weizsäcker joined the CDU in 1954 and became member of the German Parliament in 1969. In 1981 he was elected Governing Mayor of (West) Berlin.
He was elected President of Germany by the Federal Assembly in 1984, succeeding Karl Carstens. Weizsäcker was famous for his speeches. Due to the high esteem in which he was held by all political parties, he is so far the only candidate to have stood for elections for the office of federal president uncontested; he was elected in such a way to a second term of office in 1989. Although now an elder statesman, von Weizsäcker is still involved in politics and charitable affairs. He was the chair of a commission installed by the current social democratic-green government for reforming the Bundeswehr.
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Template:German title Freiherr
| Preceded by: Karl Carstens Sabine Bergmann-Pohl| east Germany | President of Germany 1984-1994 | Succeeded by: Roman Herzog |
de:Richard von Weizsäcker fr:Richard von Weizsäcker nds:Richard von Weizsäcker ja:リヒャルト・フォン・ヴァイツゼッカー pl:Richard von Weizsäcker sk:Richard von Weizsäcker sv:Richard von Weizsäcker