V o L u m e I : a d

British Conservative Party leader (1965–1974) and prime minister (1970–

1975). Born in Broadstairs, Kent, on 9 July 1916, Edward Heath was the son

of a carpenter and local builder. Heath’s intelligence and ambition earned

him a spot at Balliol College, Oxford University, where he became president

of the Oxford Union and was active in conservative politics. He was called to

service duty in 1940, signed on with the army, and saw action in Belgium, the

Netherlands, and Germany during World War II, rising to the rank of major

by the end of the war.

Heath was first elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1950, rising

through the ranks to become chief Conservative whip in 1955. In 1959 he

was appointed to head the Ministry of Labour. In 1960 he moved to the For-

eign Office where, during 1961–1963, he led the negotiations to help secure

British entry into the European Union (EU). Heath was elected to lead the

Conservative Party in 1965 and won an unexpected victory in the general

election of 1970, becoming prime minister.

As prime minister, one of Heath’s priorities was to achieve his earlier

goal of bringing Britain into the EU; Britain joined on 1 January 1973. Rather

unusually, Heath did not place great importance on his nation’s special rela-

tionship with the United States, although he did support the Americans in

their Vietnam struggle and approved of President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972

visit to China. However, Heath remained studiously neutral during the Arab-

Israeli War of 1973.

Severe economic problems, greatly exacerbated by the Organization of

Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo between 1973 and

1974, placed the British economy in dire straits, and Heath was less than

successful in quelling the resultant dislocations. A government dispute

with the coal miners’ union in late 1973 led to further economic chaos,

including rolling electrical blackouts and the imposition of a three-day

workweek. These emergencies ultimately led to the Conservative defeat

in a 1974 election. The following year, Heath was ousted from the party

leadership by Margaret Thatcher. He remained in the House of Commons

until 2001. Much to his chagrin, he was not offered ministerial office by

Thatcher or her successors. Heath died in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, on

17 July 2005.

Paul Wingrove

See also

Arab-Israeli Wars; European Union; Nixon, Richard Milhous; Organization of Petro-

leum Exporting Countries; Thatcher, Margaret; United Kingdom

References

Campbell, John. Edward Heath: A Biography. London: Jonathan Cape, 1993.

Heath, Edward. The Course of My Life. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1998.

904

Heath, Edward

Heath, Edward

(1916–2005)

---

Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) politician, minister

of justice (1949–1950, 1966–1969), and president (1969–1974). Born in

Schwelm, Germany, on 23 July 1899, Gustav Heinemann studied law,

political economy, and history at the universities of Münster, Munich, Göt-

tingen, and Berlin. He received a doctorate in political science from Mar-

burg University in 1921 and a doctorate in law from Münster University in

1929. During 1928–1945, he served as a legal advisor to and director of a

steel company. During the Nazi years, Heinemann became an orthodox

Protestant and committed himself to the church’s struggle against that

regime.

A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Heinemann

entered the Diet of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1947 and was its minister

of justice during 1947–1948. Although not a member of the Bundestag, he

was nevertheless appointed federal minister of the interior in Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer’s government in September 1949, a tactical move to in-

clude the Protestant wing of the CDU in the cabinet. Heinemann resigned

from office in October 1950 after a dispute with Adenauer over the chan-

cellor’s plan to rearm West Germany. Heinemann left the CDU in 1952 and

founded the All-German Peoples’ Party, which suffered a major electoral

defeat in 1957.

After the defeat, Heinemann joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD)

and entered the Bundestag in 1957. He subsequently served as federal

minister of justice in the coalition cabinet of Kurt-Georg Kiesinger from

1966 until his election as president in March 1969; he remained in that

office until June 1974. As the so-called citizen president, Heinemann, in

his public speeches, repeatedly sought to further develop values such as

democracy and individual freedom in West Germany. During several state

visits to neighboring countries, he strove to convey the image of a peace-

loving and internationally modest new Germany. Heinemann died in Essen

on 7 July 1976.

Bert Becker

See also

Adenauer, Konrad; Germany, Federal Republic of; Kiesinger, Kurt-Georg

References

Banchoff, Thomas. The German Problem Transformed: Institutions, Politics, and Foreign

Policy, 1945–1995. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.

Nicholls, Anthony James. The Bonn Republic: West German Democracy, 1945–1990.

London and New York: Longman, 1997.

Vinke, Hermann. Gustav Heinemann. Bornheim-Merten: Lamuv-Verlag, 1986.

Webb, Adrian. Germany since 1945. London and New York: Longman, 1998.

Heinemann, Gustav

905

Heinemann, Gustav

(1899–1976)

---