As of: February 26, 2024, 4:22 p.m
By: Christian Deutschländer
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Bavaria mourns Alois Glück.
The important CSU politician was a thinker, never a follower.
Obituary for an inconvenient.
Munich - He never liked the eulogies and the empty words, and once he harshly banned them.
It was his 65th birthday, the party friends had again prepared all sorts of celebrations, honest speeches and moderately honest ones - then Alois Glück (CSU) made an urgent request.
He actually doesn't want to celebrate at all, but if he has to, then no one should say the phrase "Stay as you are" to him.
“Because I want to change.
For me, life is change.”
Never to freeze unchanged, but to remain true to himself: that's what Alois Glück managed to do.
His life was always about change, at best a change of circumstances for the better.
The farmer's boy from Hörzing near Traunstein initially didn't want to get into politics.
At the age of 17 he had to start running his parents' farm; his father had died in the World War.
He later became state secretary of the Catholic Rural Youth and at the same time worked as a freelance journalist.
The path of Alois Glück: From environmental politician to state parliament president and party chairman
1970, a local coincidence, then the candidacy for state parliament.
He began his career as a young environmental politician, a minor issue at the time.
In 1974 he was allowed to head the environmental committee, which was still not considered important; all sorts of nameless newcomers were thrown out of the committee; their names were Edmund Stoiber, Kurt Faltlhauser, Erwin Huber and Otto Wiesheu.
Alois Glück - About the person
Surname |
Alois luck |
|---|---|
birth date |
January 24, 1940 |
Date of death |
February 26, 2024 |
Marital status |
married, father of two children |
Political party |
CSU |
Political offices |
Environment State Secretary, CSU state parliamentary group leader, state parliament president, Upper Bavaria chairman |
Further commitment |
President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, honorary chairman of the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service |
Oh!
It was precisely this circle that would later shape Bavaria's politics for over a decade or two as prime ministers, powerful ministers and important party leaders.
Happiness as a non-lawyer, self-taught, unstudied person, in the middle of them, and in his very eventful relationship.
His rise in facts is quickly told: in 1986 he was State Secretary for the Environment for two years, from 1988 he was head of the CSU parliamentary group for an impressive 15 years, then from 2003 to 2008 he was President of the State Parliament;
At the same time, the very important party office in the CSU as chairman of Upper Bavaria until 2007. What is more exciting is how he filled the offices where he caused offense.
“The leader is rather suspicious”: CSU politician Glück is uncomfortable, but straightforward
“I never had a sponsor, I went my own way,” he once said.
“In the first ten years I was rather suspicious of the leaders.” After a few years, the suspicion gave way to the feeling of reliability that this Glück was an uncomfortable person, but a straightforward one, more of a thinker than a shouter.
“He drank little beer, hardly played Schafkopf, spoke quietly and wrote, wrote nonstop,” CSU veteran Peter Gauweiler once told the
SZ
.
“After initial ridicule, it gave him a somewhat annoying image, but this quickly led to considerable effectiveness.”
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The former President of the Bavarian State Parliament and former President of the Central Committee of German Catholics is dead. © IMAGO / Sven Simon
Oh yes, he could be long-winded.
In letters to journalists when he didn't like something.
In statements to the party leadership.
For a while, Bavarian reporters kept tally sheets of how often he spoke in his appearances about the “network of roots” and the “distance,” two typical words of happiness from the world of nature and mountaineering, whose formulas he liked to transfer to politics.
The mockery stopped when Glück turned out to be a very determined, power-conscious CSU parliamentary group leader who was willing to contradict himself.
It was he who contradicted Prime Minister Stoiber.
Whenever he thought it was unavoidable, he told Eeedmund (he always pronounced it that way) his unvarnished opinion.
Mostly quiet, rarely loud, overall a virtue that is not widespread in the party today.
As soon as he said “careful” in his creaky voice, the CSU knew that things were serious.
And a kind of balance emerged between Stoiber, who constantly had ideas, and Glück, who constantly had concerns.
“Interest in the weak” and progressive faith: an insight into Glück's views
In the media, Alois Glück became more and more of a “gray eminence”.
Gray doesn't go well with his very rosy complexion, which he cultivated on countless mountain tours.
Incidentally, those climbs up the mountain were also one of the rare opportunities to find out a few words about the private citizen.
What not many people know: Glück, a father of two, has a severely disabled son.
Thomas fell ill with meningitis in 1967 after a vaccination when he was eight months old and remained in need of care.
“That was formative for my worldview,” Alois Glück once said in a thick voice, “for my interest in the weak.
It saved me from only seeing the public world.”
His faith and his commitment to the Catholic Church are inseparable from his work.
For six years, until 2015, he led the Central Committee of Catholics.
He advocated for a careful but noticeable opening of the church, for example to remarried people.
Happiness burned for a church close to people, rejected faith in obedience.
He was deeply at odds when the church withdrew from the state counseling system on abortion and became a co-founder of the lay association Donum Vitae.
“The Bridge Builder”: Reactivation of happiness through bee referendums
At some point this quiet but restless politician was retired.
He gave up honorary positions, including the chairmanship of the mountain rescue service and in the hospice movement.
Then the phone rang in 2019, it was Markus Söder's turn with a pleading request: He needed a mediator in the “bee” referendum, which was stirring up the country like no other.
Glück asked for time to think about it, but already knew he would say yes.
“It was sometimes murderous and a danger to health,” he later told the
Münchner Merkur
about those months.
“I have never made more phone calls in my life.” But the trained environmental politician overcame the division between farmers, conservationists, business and politics, found compromises and healed.
“The Bridge Builder,” was the title of a newspaper text on Lucky’s last big birthday.
Withdrawal of Alois Glück and sudden death – his spiritual legacy remains
In the last few months he has withdrawn.
The fact that he was admitted to a Munich hospital with a stroke remained publicly unknown.
Only a small circle was informed and suspected something bad.
Glück died on Monday morning, the news of his death came as a surprise to Bavaria.
Many reactions reflect sadness and – honest – respect.
What will remain of happiness?
Changes.
Movement.
Encounters.
Many years ago, a hiker left an entry about a chance acquaintance in the Gedererwand summit book.
“22.
June 2003, 6:30 a.m.;
met Glück, CSU, who was on the way to Kampen.
I think politicians who run up the mountain so early at a good pace are the right ones.”
(Christian Deutschländer)