Erhard Eppler

Erhard Eppler
Minister for Economic Cooperation
In office 1968–1974
Preceded by	Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski
Succeeded by	Egon Bahr
Personal details
Born	(1926-12-09)9 December 1926 Ulm, Weimar Republic
Died	19 October 2019(2019-10-19) (aged 92) Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Occupation	Teacher

Erhard Eppler (9 December 1926 – 19 October 2019)^[1] was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and founder of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).^[2] He studied English, German and history in Frankfurt, Bern and Tübingen, achieved a PhD and worked as a teacher. He met Gustav Heinemann in the late 1940s, who became a role model. Eppler was a member of the Bundestag from 1961 to 1976. He was appointed Minister for Economic Cooperation first in 1968 during the grand coalition of Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) and Willy Brandt (SPD), continuing under Chancellor Brandt in 1969 and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD) in 1974, when he stepped down.

An early thinker on environmental sustainability and peace movements, Eppler was involved in various controversies within his party. He was president of the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Protestant Church Assembly) from 1981 to 1983 and again from 1989 to 1991.