Wolfgang Rauls

Wolfgang Rauls (17 June 1948 – 19 June 2023^[1]) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was the last leader of the National Democratic Party during the Wende, before its eventual merger into the Free Democratic Party. After German reunification, he entered state politics in Saxony-Anhalt, serving as Minister for the Environment and, eventually, Deputy Minister-President in the CDU cabinets from 1990 to 1994.^[2]

Wolfgang Rauls
Rauls in 1991
Leader of the National Democratic Party
In office 11 February 1990 – 27 March 1990
Preceded by	Wolfgang Glaeser
Succeeded by	Position abolished Jürgen Schmieder (as Leader of the Association of Free Democrats)
Mayor of Gommern
In office 31 December 2005 – 30 June 2012
Deputy	Annette Schulze
Preceded by	Klaus Petersen
Succeeded by	Jens Hünerbein
Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt
Acting
In office 28 November 1993 – 2 December 1993
Deputy	himself
Preceded by	Werner Münch
Succeeded by	Christoph Bergner
Deputy Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt
In office 12 September 1991 – 21 July 1994
Minister-President	Werner Münch Christoph Bergner
Preceded by	Gerd Brunner
Succeeded by	Heidrun Heidecke
Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation of Saxony-Anhalt
In office 2 November 1990 – 21 July 1994
Minister-President	Gerd Gies Werner Münch Christoph Bergner
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Heidrun Heidecke (Environment, Nature Conservation and Regional Planning)
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt In office 16 May 2002 – 1 January 2006 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Uwe Droese Constituency Free Democratic Party List In office 28 October 1990 – 21 July 1994 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by multi-member district Constituency Free Democratic Party List
Personal details
Born	Wolfgang Rauls (1948-06-17)17 June 1948 Rohrsheim, Province of Saxony-Anhalt, Soviet occupation zone (now Germany)
Died	19 June 2023(2023-06-19) (aged 75)
Political party	Free Democratic Party (1990–)
Other political affiliations	Association of Free Democrats (1990) National Democratic Party (GDR) (1968–1990)
Residence	Gommern
Alma mater	Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft der DDR
Occupation	Politician civil servant party clerk Electrician

Political career

East Germany

In 1968 Rauls, an electrician by trade, joined the National Democratic Party, a Bloc party subservient to the ruling Socialist Unity Party. He thereafter worked as a full-time party official and civil servant in the Bezirk Magdeburg.^[3]

During the Peaceful Revolution, Rauls was elected leader of the National Democratic Party and was their lead candidate in the 1990 Volkskammer election. The NDPD now was independent and running on a classical liberal platform of a Social market economy, a phased plan to German reunification and entry of the GDR in the European Community. However, because the NDPD had been reluctant to criticise the SED government even during the Peaceful Revolution^[4] and was stained as a former Bloc party, it was initially barred from joining the Association of Free Democrats liberal coalition and fared poorly in the election. With 44,292 votes (0.38%) they received fewer votes than they (nominally) had members. The two elected members of the Volkskammer, none of them being Rauls, joined The Liberals group and the NDPD eventually merged with the Association of Free Democrats, then the Free Democratic Party. Rauls was elected to the Federal Executive Board of the party at the same time.^[3]

Saxony-Anhalt state politics

Rauls (center) among the other ministers of the coalition government of Gerd Gies.

After German reunification, Rauls entered state politics in Saxony-Anhalt, where he became Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation in a coalition government with the CDU under Minister-President Gerd Gies, after winning election to the Landtag in the inaugural October 1990 state election. Under Werner Münch, he was additionally appointed Deputy Minister-President after Gerd Brunner, then also FDP leader Saxony-Anhalt, was exposed as having worked for the Stasi.^[5]

In the 1994 election, the coalition government lost re-election, with the FDP under lead candidate Peter Kunert being shut out of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt entirely. In January of that year, Rauls had unsuccessfully tried to topple Kunert from his leadership position of the FDP in Saxony-Anhalt. There were quarrels about the direction of the party, with left-leaning Kunert favoring a coalition with SPD and the Greens instead of the CDU.

Rauls later was elected to the Landtag again in the 2002 election, but he was not among the FDP cabinet ministers. Rauls resigned from the Landtag in January 2006, having been elected Mayor of Gommern, a position he retired from in 2012.^[6]

References

1. "Traueranzeigen von Wolfgang Rauls | www.abschied-nehmen.de (Funeral notices for Wolfgang Rauls)" (in German). www.abschied-nehmen.de. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
2. Childs, David (30 July 2014). The Fall of the GDR. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-88310-4.
3. "Rauls, Wolfgang" (in German). 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
4. Richter, Michael (2009). Die friedliche Revolution: Aufbruch zur Demokratie in Sachsen 1989/90. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 1077. ISBN 978-3647369143.
5. "Wolfgang Rauls" (in German). Chronik der Wende. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
6. "Wolfgang Rauls geht vorzeitig in den Ruhestand" (in German). Volksstimme. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2022.