Hans-Jochen Vogel - Vogel and The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

Vogel and The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

Hans-Jochen Vogel became a member of the SPD in 1950. Although he was only 34 years old, he was elected Mayor of Munich as the candidate of the SPD on March 27, 1960, with 64.3% of the vote. His popularity increased even more, partly due to his success in tackling the city's traffic problems, and he was re-elected in 1966 with 77.9%. The fact that Munich was chosen as the venue of the 1972 Olympic Games, which had additional beneficial effects on town planning and traffic projects, was to a large extent a result of his efforts.

When Vogel became the leader of the Bavarian Social Democrats and also a member of the executive of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1972, he resigned as Mayor of Munich and passed this office on to Georg Kronawitter. He describes his Munich years in his book Die Amtskette ("The Chain of Office"), which was published in the same year.

In the General Elections of November 19, 1972, Vogel was the top candidate of the Bavarian SPD; two years later he was the SPD's top candidate in the elections for the Bavarian State Parliament. Whereas he could not prevent a resounding victory of the CSU (Christian Social Union of Bavaria), he himself gained the best result for any SPD politician in Bavaria after the Second World War. His popularity also showed itself in the General Elections of 1976, when he alone of all the SPD Munich candidates did not lose his constituency to the CSU.

A new challenge arose in 1981. Dietrich Stobbe stepped down as Mayor of Berlin, and Hans-Jochen Vogel was asked to be his successor and take charge of a deeply divided Berlin SPD. He created a unique "Berlin way" of dealing with the problem of "occupied" houses by granting contracts to the occupiers, while preventing any new occupations at the same time.

Although he managed to successfully deal with his party's difficulties to a large extent, the SPD lost the following Berlin elections, which took place only a few months after Vogel had taken office.

During the following year Vogel was Leader of the Opposition in the parliament of Berlin, before becoming the SPD's top candidate for the German General Elections of March 6, 1983. Helmut Schmidt had been toppled as chancellor by the CDU leader, Helmut Kohl, and did not want to be the SPD's top candidate again. Vogel filled the breach. Disarmament and the problems of the labour market were at the centre of his campaign. But Kohl won the elections.