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- BIOGRAPHY
Son of Freiherr Ernst Heinrich von Weizsäcker and Marianne von Graevenitz, Richard was born 15 April 1920 in Stuttgart. After the capitulation in 1945, everyone suffered from hunger and cold, but that didn't matter too much. What Richard and others most of all wanted was to broaden their horizons on what had happened and to rebuild a new Germany. With his friends studying at Göttingen, not far from the border with the Soviets, he kept a knapsack packed in case war broke out. What they couldn't agree on was whether in case of war it would be safer to head west to the Americans or east out of the combat zone.
Dr. Richard von Weizsäcker stated later: 'Two things stand out in my memory: the magnanimous and at the same time wise action of the Marshall Plan, and, secondly, the keen American interest in getting the western part of Germany organized as a state and included in a Western alliance against the Soviets. The thing I expected least in 1945 was that by 1950 the American Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, would publicly ask for a German military contribution to the alliance.'
On 8 October 1953 in Hamburg he married Marianne von Kretschmann and they had four children. He became mayor of West Berlin and, in 1984 President of West Germany, and after the reunification, president of all Germany, until 1994.
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