Ernst Albrecht (politician, born 1930)

Ernst Albrecht
Ernst Albrecht in 1988
Minister President of Lower Saxony
In office 6 February 1976 – 21 June 1990
Preceded by	Alfred Kubel
Succeeded by	Gerhard Schröder
Personal details
Born	Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht (1930-06-29)29 June 1930 Leuchtenburg, Germany
Died	13 December 2014(2014-12-13) (aged 84) Burgdorf, Germany
Political party	CDU
Spouse	Adele Stromeyer
Children	7
Alma mater	University of Tübingen University of Bonn
Occupation	Economist (Diplom)

Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht (29 June 1930 – 13 December 2014) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union and a former high-ranking civil servant of the European Commission. He served as Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990.

Life and career

The son of an internist, Albrecht studied law and economics, and worked for several years for the predecessor organizations of the European Union, living in Brussels with his family. He became a cabinet chief at the Commission of the European Economic Community in 1958 and a Director-General of the European Commission in 1969. He entered politics in his native Germany when he was elected to the Lower Saxony state legislature in 1970, and moved to Hanover with his family the following year. From 1971 to 1976, he was CEO of Bahlsen.

When Alfred Kubel resigned from the office of Premier in 1976, Albrecht was surprisingly elected as his successor. Since he received three more votes than his party had representatives in the Legislative Assembly, some members of the governing parties SPD and FDP must have secretly voted for him.

Albrecht is known for the decision to make the County of Lüchow-Dannenberg the state's "nuclear district"; only a radioactive waste dump at Gorleben was realized, however. During his tenure Albrecht was embroiled in an unusually large number of political scandals; most famously, the Celle Hole. In 1980, Albrecht started a campaign for being elected Chancellor, but did not prevail against fellow conservative Franz-Josef Strauß. Albrecht lost the 1990 state elections to Gerhard Schröder, who later became Chancellor.

He is the father of politician Ursula von der Leyen and Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO of the international telecom and media group Millicom. His brother is George Alexander Albrecht, a conductor. He had Alzheimer's disease since 2003, which was announced to the public in 2008. He died at the age of 84 in December 2014.