Peter Petersen
 Peter Petersen    (politician) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 30 October 1926 Hamburg, Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 17 March 2005 (Age 78) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | German | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of | Le Cercle | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||
German politician from the CDU who attended the January 1984 Le Cercle meeting.
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Peter Petersen was a German politician from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. He attended the January 1984 Le Cercle meeting.
Early Life
After attending school, Petersen was drafted into the Wehrmacht, joined the NSDAP (membership number 9.895.467)[1] and took part in World War II as a soldier. He suffered a minor wound and was promoted to Fahnenjunker (officer cadet).
After graduating from high school in 1947, he initially worked for the anti-communist Moral Re-Armament (MRA) organization in Caux, Switzerland. He later worked as a freelance market researcher. Professionally, he went on several trips abroad to the United States, Western Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia. He was also a first lieutenant in the Bundeswehr reserve.
Petersen joined the CDU and was deputy chairman of the CDU district association Leonberg. He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1965 to 1972 and from 1976 to 1990. He was also a member of the North Atlantic Assembly since 1967.
Diplomacy
He was a high-ranking member of the CDU, and worked with CDU-leader Helmut Kohl. As opposition leader, Helmut Kohl had expressed that he was "very concerned" about the ever growing public presence of the Holocaust in the USA. Since the early 1980s, in consultation with now Chancellor Kohl, Petersen was in contact with representatives of the future United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He did not seek conflict with the USA over the issue, but suggested a different tactic.
In an internal letter he wrote, “I mean, we can only let ourselves be guided now by the question of how to avoid straining the Alliance, a relationship that can be effectively poisoned if we fail to to satisfy or at least neutralize the influential Jews in America.”[2]
To this end, he "would continue to do everything possible to win over the Jews of America, not because they are particularly nice people (some really aren't), but because I don't want to see the alliance damaged; for what good is it to us to insist on our pride and afterwards to stand in a damaged alliance".
Activities
The January 1984 guest list of Le Cercle lists "Peter Petersen", MdB, as a "Member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee".
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Cercle/1983 (Bonn) | 30 June 1983 | 3 July 1983 | Germany Bonn | |
| Le Cercle/1984 (Capetown) | 12 January 1984 | 15 January 1984 | South Africa Stellenbosch Capetown | 4 day meeting of Le Cercle in Capetown exposed after Joel Van der Reijden discovered the attendee list for this conference and published it online in 2011 |
