SPD politician
Hamburg’s ex-mayor Klose died
Hans-Ulrich Klose in February 2013 at the state party conference of the Hamburg SPD. photo
© picture alliance / dpa
At 37, he was the youngest head of government in the republic. Hamburg’s former mayor Hans-Ulrich Klose has now died. Chancellor Scholz remembers his clear stance and clear words.
Klose was Prime Minister in Hamburg from 1974 to 1981. He then made a name for himself in the Bundestag as a faction leader and an experienced foreign politician. Within the party, he was treasurer until 1991 and belonged to the SPD’s closest leadership circle.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz – who was also mayor of Hamburg before moving to Berlin – confirmed that Klose had a clear stance and clear words. The SPD politician wrote on Platform X, formerly Twitter, that he had not shied away from any political debate. “He loved politics, poetry and humour. Hans-Ulrich Klose shaped Hamburg and the Federal Republic. He will be missed!”
“The death of Hans-Ulrich Klose fills us with deep sadness,” said Hamburg SPD leaders Melanie Leonhard and Nils Weiland. “We are losing a great social democrat and highly respected politician who, as mayor, set the course for Hamburg’s successful development.”
CDU calls Klose “deserving Hanseatic citizen”
The opposition in the Hamburg Parliament also paid tribute to Klose, who became mayor at the age of 37 and was the youngest head of government in a federal state at the time. “Hans-Ulrich Klose worked for our city all his life,” said CDU faction leader Dennis Thering about the “deserving Hanseatic”. The FDP politician Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein called him a “pugnacious intellectual” who had shaped Hamburg for years.
The SPD parliamentary group leader in the German Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, called Klose an “outstanding politician and a fine person”. He “faced the political challenges with decency and dignity” and “served our country in many important functions,” explained Mützenich.
Klose was in charge of Hamburg City Hall for seven years until he surprisingly resigned in May 1981. Two years later he became a member of the German Bundestag and remained there until 2013. After Hans-Jochen Vogel resigned, Klose was elected chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in 1991, but had to cede the post to Rudolf Scharping in 1994.
Rigorous austerity course in Hamburg
Klose started as mayor of Hamburg in 1974 with a rigorous austerity program. As a representative of the left wing of the party, he criticized the extremist decision and tried to get Hamburg to abandon nuclear energy. Klose resigned as mayor in 1981 because of the lack of support from the SPD for his course against the Brokdorf nuclear power plant, located around 70 kilometers away in neighboring Schleswig-Holstein.
“As a Green, we remember in particular his progressive attitude towards nuclear power and his commitment against Hamburg’s involvement in the Brokdorf nuclear power plant,” said Dominik Lorenzen, the Greens’ parliamentary group leader. As a member of parliament and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, he was a formative voice in German politics for a long time, “which will now be greatly missed”.
Since 1998, Klose has devoted himself to foreign and security policy at federal level, was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and in 2010 also became coordinator for transatlantic cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office – a post he gave up again early in 2011 for family reasons. After more than 30 years and eight electoral terms, he did not stand as a candidate in the 2013 federal election.