Serious fall

German CDU politician Klaus Töpfer (85) is dead

Klaus Töpfer 2004 in Nairobi

(Bild: AFP)

Former German Environment Minister and CDU politician Klaus Töpfer died on Saturday "after a short, serious illness". According to media reports, he fell victim to a serious fall at an event in Munich.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid tribute to Töpfer as a pioneer for more climate protection. "Klaus Töpfer made climate protection an important issue - worldwide and in Germany," said the SPD politician. "We are grateful for his foresight and his strong voice. He will be missed," he added.

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke also paid tribute to her deceased predecessor: "In Klaus Töpfer, we are losing one of our great environmental politicians." CDU leader Friedrich Merz wrote: "We mourn the loss of a deserving politician and a controversial fighter for sustainability, who had a decisive influence on the environmental and climate policy of our country and internationally."

Career

Töpfer was born in Silesia in 1938. After his family was expelled, he grew up in Höxter (North Rhine-Westphalia). After studying economics, he specialized in spatial planning and joined the CDU in 1972. Töpfer entered politics in the 1970s in Saarland, where he took up a post in the state chancellery. He later became State Secretary and then State Minister for the Environment and Health in Rhineland-Palatinate. Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed him to the West German government in 1987. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986 had prompted his government to bundle environmental issues and the area of reactor safety into a separate ministry.

After leaving German politics, he became involved with the United Nations as Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi. Most recently, he lived with his wife Mechthild in Höxter.

Töpfer became famous, among other things, for a courageous jump from a police boat into the Rhine in 1988 - the reason was a lost bet, as he repeatedly recounted. He also wanted to show that the previously heavily polluted river was once again suitable for swimming.