V o L u m e I : a d

where he was president of the Oxford Union. He then worked in a number

of fields, including property management and publishing. He became a

multimillionaire with his Haymarket Press, which publishes news and trade

magazines.

Heseltine was first elected to Parliament in 1966. Over the next decade he

advanced in the Conservative Party, and when Margaret Thatcher became

prime minister in 1979 she appointed him secretary of state for the environ-

ment. In 1983 he became secretary of state for defense.

During the Thatcher years, Heseltine generally supported the govern-

ment’s military buildup and a tough stance toward the Soviet Union. He

abruptly left the cabinet in 1986, however, when he found himself at odds

with Thatcher for his role in the Westland Helicopter Affair. Heseltine pre-

ferred a European merger of the failing Westland firm with Italian and French

aerospace companies, while Thatcher sought to join Westland with U.S.-

based Sikorsky. Heseltine was also at odds with the Thatcher government on

other matters.

Heseltine remained in the House of Commons, and in November 1990

he engineered a challenge to Thatcher’s leadership. After one ballot Thatcher

stepped aside, but Heseltine still faced two opponents for the party’s leader-

ship. Eventually John Major, chancellor of the exchequer, won the party

election and became prime minister.

As a consolation, Major named Heseltine environment secretary, a post

he held until 1992. Heseltine also served Major as industry secretary dur-

ing 1992–1995 and deputy prime minister in 1993, a post he held until 1997.

After the 1997 Labour victory, Heseltine left the government. He remained in

Parliament until 2001, when he was given a life peerage as Baron Heseltine.

Justin P. Coffey

See also

Thatcher, Margaret; United Kingdom

References

Crick, Michael. Michael Heseltine. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1997.

Heseltine, Michael. Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography. London: Hodder and Stough-

ton, 2000.

Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) politician and its first

president (1949–1959). Born on 31 January 1884 in Brackenheim, Germany,

Theodor Heuss was educated in cultural and economic studies at universities

in Munich and Berlin. He received his doctorate in economics from Munich

University in 1905 and taught political science during 1920–1933. He held a

Reichstag seat for the leftist-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) during

1924–1928 and again during 1930–1933. Highly critical of German Chancellor

910

Heuss, Theodor

Heuss, Theodor

(1884–1963)

---

Adolf Hitler, Heuss was dismissed from his lectureship in 1933 and retreated

into retirement in 1936, spending his time writing biographies.

In September 1945 Heuss became minister of cultural affairs in

Württemberg-Baden but resigned after the November 1946 elections. A

cofounder of a new liberal party in Württemberg, he was elected chairman of

the regional Democratic People’s Party (DVP) in 1946. At the national level,

he became cochairman of the Democratic Party of Germany (DPD) in 1947,

the major forerunner of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). A member of the

Württemberg Diet during 1946–1949, he helped draft the new federal con-

stitution. He also became a member of the Bundestag in August 1949 but

resigned in September 1949 when the Federal Council elected him presi-

dent of West Germany.

During his first term, Heuss was mainly concerned with domestic affairs.

Although the office of federal president had minimal political power, he

engaged himself in promoting democratic values and in reconciling different

groups of German society. Following his 1954 reelection, he turned to for-

eign affairs and paid state visits to a number of Western nations. His major

intentions were to draw a clear distinction between the Nazi state and West

Germany and to enhance West Germany’s international reputation. His gen-

erally cordial relationship with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was shattered

in 1959 when Adenauer, wishing to become the next president, indicated his

intention to enhance the political power of the office. At the end of his sec-

ond term in 1959, Heuss retired from politics and resumed writing. He died

in Stuttgart on 12 December 1963.

Bert Becker

See also

Adenauer, Konrad; Germany, Federal Republic of

References

Banchoff, Thomas F. The German Problem Transformed: Institutions, Politics, and For-

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

Heuss, Theodor. Preludes to Life: Early Memoirs. Translated by Michael Bullock. New

York: Citadel Press, 1955.

Moeller, Robert G., ed. West Germany under Construction: Politics, Society, and Culture in

the Adenauer Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

American midlevel State Department official and alleged Cold War spy. Born

on 11 November 1904 in Baltimore, Maryland, Alger Hiss was educated at

Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities. He joined the U.S. State Depart-

ment in 1936. Among several important assignments, he was private secre-

tary to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, secretary to the

Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944), and among the U.S. delegation to the

1945 Yalta Conference. Hiss also served as secretary-general of the United

Hiss, Alger

911

Hiss, Alger

(1904–1996)

---