The former President of the State Parliament and President of the Central Committee of German Catholics is dead. As the Bavarian State Parliament announced, Alois Glück died on Monday morning at the age of 84 in a Munich clinic.
State Parliament President Ilse Aigner was dismayed by the death of Glück, who was CSU parliamentary group leader in the state parliament for 15 years: “He was an extraordinary politician who made a name for himself as a thought leader and pioneer for decades, especially in environmental and social policy. One Sustainable development of rural areas and at the same time the protection of nature – this is what Alois Glück always stood for and at the same time relied on innovation.” Due to his straightforward and balancing nature, Glück was always a sought-after mediator when it came to bringing together different opinions and views into a good compromise.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wrote on the short message service X that luck was always a strong voice and moral authority that would be missed.
After the meeting of the CSU party executive board on Monday afternoon, he said that even though Glück was never prime minister or party chairman, he was one of the CSU’s defining figures. Söder called him a “thought leader” and a “facilitator”.
Manfred Weber, party and group leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, also praised Glück on X as a “moral and political authority”. Happiness sees change not as a threat, “but as an opportunity and normality,” the CSU politician wrote there.
Alois Glück was a member of the state parliament for 38 years. For twelve years – from 1974 to 1986 – he headed the Committee for Regional Development and Environmental Issues before moving to the state government as State Secretary in the same department. In 1988, the CSU parliamentary group elected him to head it, and he remained chairman until 2003.
The trained farmer and passionate mountain hiker was involved in numerous honorary positions until the end. Whether as honorary chairman of the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service or in the Southeast Bavaria Hospice Network – for Glück, his commitment to people was a solid foundation in his work, as the state parliament announced. From 1983 onwards, Alois Glück was also active in the Central Committee of German Catholics and was its president from 2009 to 2015.
In 2019 – actually long since retired from politics – Glück chaired the round table on species protection convened by Prime Minister Söder. The aim was to reconcile the interests of farmers in Bavaria with the demands of the successful “Save the Bees” referendum. As a result, everyone involved praised Glück’s commitment and successful overcoming of existing conflicts.
Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, described Glück’s death as a serious loss for Bavaria. “With him, the Jewish community and I personally have lost a long-standing comrade-in-arms for a free and open society. The Jewish Center in Munich would not exist without his input,” Knobloch was quoted as saying in a press release from the cultural community. Throughout his life, Glück was very clear about the dangers to democracy and stood in their way wherever he could.
Katharina Schulze, parliamentary group leader of the state parliamentary Green Party, also commented on the death of the top politician: “Alois Glück was a politician who negotiated his issues passionately but objectively. Someone who could overcome divides. If something was important, he stood up for it – even beyond retirement.”
Florian Streibl, chairman of the state parliamentary group of Free Voters, also expressed his regret: “The news of Alois Glück’s death fills me with great sadness. Glück has not only earned great recognition as a politician and former President of the Bavarian State Parliament. Also his long-standing commitment as President of the Central Council of Catholics impressed me.”
Glück “also thought beyond party boundaries,” says the SPD
Florian von Brunn, chairman of the SPD in Bavaria, described Glück as a politician with absolute integrity and commitment, “who not only conducted dialogue across party boundaries, but also thought beyond party boundaries.”
Bavaria’s Minister of Social Affairs Ulrike Scharf (CSU) pointed out that Glück was particularly committed to protecting unborn life: “As one of the founding fathers of Donum Vitae, he made it his mission to close the big gap left by the withdrawal of the Catholic Church in the pregnancy conflict counseling in 2001, to close.”
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) praised Alois Glück in a press release as a pioneer of a civil society whose model he had developed over the years: “Glück has designed an image of society based on the responsibility of the individual, which stands timelessly for living together in a society, in which down-to-earthness and cosmopolitanism are just as linked as rural tradition, technological progress and social cohesion.”