Klaus Töpfer: The minister who jumped into the Rhine. Former Federal Environment Minister is lifeless | EUROtoday

Status: 12:22 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes

DThe former Federal Environment Minister and CDU politician Klaus Töpfer has died. He died on Saturday after a brief, severe sickness, as a spokeswoman for the Federal CDU confirmed on Tuesday in Berlin. Töpfer was 85 years previous. The “Neue Westfälische” and the “Westfalen-Blatt” had beforehand reported.

He was Germany's second atmosphere minister – however the first to have an enduring influence on the workplace. For many years, Klaus Töpfer was thought-about the “green conscience” of the Christian Democrats, and even into previous age he by no means bored with calling for sustainable insurance policies.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst praised Töpfer as a visionary. “With Klaus Töpfer, one of the greatest environmental politicians of our time has passed away,” stated Wüst on Tuesday. “He foresaw many of the things we are discussing today decades ago.” He all the time advocated for joint, holistic and socially oriented options. “With his extraordinary persistence and patience, Klaus Töpfer was a fighter for the preservation of creation and, to the end, a globally heard and internationally respected voice of warning.”

Töpfer turned well-known, amongst different issues, for a brave soar from a police boat into the Rhine in 1988 – the rationale was a misplaced wager, as he repeatedly stated. He needed to reveal the success of water safety measures after a significant hearth at a chemical firm. At that point, firefighting water contaminated with chemical compounds had entered the Rhine.

Töpfer was Environment Minister from 1987 to 1994 below the then CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The later Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) changed him in workplace in 1994.

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The Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in April 1986 prompted the Kohl authorities to mix environmental points and the realm of ​​reactor security in a separate ministry. As early as 1988, Töpfer known as for a future with out nuclear vitality, but additionally with ever fewer fossil fuels.

Töpfer was born in Silesia in 1938 and got here to Höxter in Westphalia after the Second World War. Töpfer entered politics within the Nineteen Seventies in Saarland, the place he took a place within the State Chancellery. He later turned State Secretary in Rhineland-Palatinate after which State Minister for the Environment and Health earlier than shifting into federal politics. Töpfer later ran unsuccessfully twice because the CDU's prime candidate within the Saarland state elections.

WELT’s final interview with Klaus Töpfer:

Even after he left workplace as Federal Environment Minister, environmental safety and sustainability remained his matters. In 1996, Töpfer represented Germany on the UN Habitat Conference in Istanbul. The focus there was on the standard of life in cities and thus additionally on the problems of poverty and the atmosphere. From 1998 to 2006, Töpfer was director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Most lately, he lived along with his spouse in Höxter in North Rhine-Westphalia.