The SPD politician Erhard Eppler is dead. The political thinker of the party has died at the age of 92 years in his adopted home Schwäbisch Hall. This was announced by the SPD Baden-Württemberg. Eppler was considered a veteran of the Social Democrats and thought leaders from the great days of the SPD.
"We are immensely grateful to Erhard Eppler for what he has given us, and he was an outstanding figure of Social Democracy, in the Bund and in Baden-Wuerttemberg, whose value foundation and principle faithfulness will be groundbreaking for us," said the SPD state and group leader in Baden-Württemberg, Andreas Stoch.
The graduated high school teacher Eppler, born in Ulm in 1926, joined the SPD in 1956 and over the decades took on a variety of offices and functions there. He was a member of the federal executive committee and state chairman in Baden-Wuerttemberg, sat in the Bundestag and later in the Stuttgart state parliament. Under Chancellor Willy Brandt (SPD) in 1968 he became Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation. Barely six years later, he resigned the post in the dispute with Brandt's successor Helmut Schmidt (SPD) down.
Eppler was chairman of the SPD-Grundwertekommission and twice also president of the German Protestant Kirchentag. Twice he also unsuccessfully as the leading candidate of the SPD in the southwest.
Not infrequently in contradiction to the party line
From an early age, Eppler represented positions in the field of environmental protection and greening or in the peace movement, which are now more likely to be taken by the Greens - and thus often stood in contradiction to the party line.
"He has always been up to date, as Willy Brandt has so insistently demanded from us Social Democrats," said Stoch. "He has not always made it easy for others, but not himself."
In the summer of 1991, Eppler said goodbye to all political functions, but not to public debate. On the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2016, the chairman of the SPD-Grundwertekommission, Gesine Schwan, said that Eppler often worked like a "Kassandra". Kassandra foresees disaster in Greek mythology, but it is not heard. "From him you can see that you can be right in the matter, even if you did not get majorities," said Schwan at that time.
