Rüdiger Altmann

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Person.png Rüdiger Altmann   AmazonRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(writer, intellectual)
Ruediger Altmann.jpg
In 1982
Born1 December 1922
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Died13 February 2000 (Age 77)
Bonn, Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma materUniversity of Frankfurt, University of Berlin, University of Marburg
ReligionCatholic
Student of Carl Schmitt who became speechwriter for Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, before becoming a spokesman for German industry. Attended Bilderberg/1969.

Rüdiger Altmann was a German lawyer with deep political connections. He was speechwriter for Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, before becoming a spokesman for German industry.[1] He attended the 1969 Bilderberg meeting.

Background

Altmann was born into a Roman Catholic family as the son of a school rector. After attending the gymnasium in Wiesbaden, he studied law, sociology, politics and history in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Marburg. Among his academic teachers was Carl Schmitt.[2]

During the Second World War, Altmann was deployed as a soldier in Russia, where he suffered severe frostbite. Altmann completed his legal studies.

Career

In 1954 he received his doctorate as Dr. phil. in Marburg with a dissertation on "The problem of the public sphere and its significance for democracy". From 1950 to 1956, Altmann was the first assistant to the socialist political scientist Wolfgang Abendroth at the Marburg Institute for Scientific Policy.[3]

Later, Altmann was, among other things, advisor and speechwriter to the Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (CDU) and then head of the Eichholz Political Academy at Eichholz Castle of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Altmann, who has been dealing with the present and future of Europe for decades and often referred to Carl Schmitt in his thinking, coined the term formed society as an advisor to Erhard. Altmann's thesis was that the old-style class society had been overcome. At the same time, it is endangered by the proliferation of organized interests, which also paralyzes the state in its ability to act.

For many years, Altmann himself was a leading representative of German industry, working as Deputy Managing Director of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

The relationship of the conservative intellectual Rüdiger Altmann to the CDU was not free of tensions. In particular, he regarded Helmut Kohl as a misfit in the Chancellery.[4] The social-liberal coalition led by Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, respectively, had goodwill from Altmann. Towards the end of his life, Altmann published more frequently in the then theory organ of the SPD, the magazine Frankfurter Hefte/Neue Gesellschaft. His estate is in the Archive of Social Democracy.


 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/19699 May 196911 May 1969Denmark
Hotel Marienlyst
Elsinore
The 18th Bilderberg meeting, with 85 participants
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References