EPP-ED Group:

In Memoriam

Hans-August Lücker

Hans August Lücker
Krümmel, 21.2.1915 - Bonn, 28.12.2007
Former Vice-President of the European Parliament

Hans August Lücker was a great European, a European democrat whom we remember as a committed champion of the cause of European unification. He was a pioneer of the European Union as we know it today and, in particular, an advocate of a European Parliament with political weight and a significant role to play in shaping the future of the European Union.

He was a Member of the European Parliament for 26 years, until 1984, and its Vice President from 1976 to 1979. From 1970 to 1975 Hans August Lücker was chairman of the Christian-Democrat parliamentary group. During that time he played a significant part in preparing for the first direct elections to the European Parliament, that great milestone in the development of democracy and the parliamentary system in Europe.

Hans August Lücker was one of the very first Members of the European Parliament. He helped prepare the way for democracy in the European Community, later to become the European Union we know today.

We remember him with the greatest respect and profound gratitude.

Hans-Gert Pöttering
President of the European Parliament

Hans August Lücker was born in Krümmel, near Montabaur, on February 21, 1915. He grew up in a Catholic farming family and studied at a lay high school. After taking his Abitur exams in 1934, he began university studies but was prevented from continuing because of his refusal to join the Hitler Youth or any other Nazi organisation. He was called up for military service in October 1939.

After the war, Lücker began a fast-moving professional career as Director of the Bavarian Chambers of Agriculture. He became an agrarian expert in Johannes Semmler's and Ludwig Erhard's working group for the reconstruction of the country; one of tasks was to elaborate a proposal for using Marshall Plan funds in the agricultural sector.

In 1953 he was, for the first time, elected to the Bundestag on the CSU ticket, representing the Unterallgäu and Ostallgäu constituency until 1980. From the outset of his career in Bonn, Lücker was a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, which was to become the European Parliament. In 1969, Lücker began six years as leader of the Christian Democratic parliamentary group, and in 1972 was invited to draft proposals for a political union. This was accepted the same year by the European Parliament and put to the Summit meeting.

Before the first direct elections to the European Parliament, Lücker was largely responsible for working on the basic programme for the party which he helped to christen the "European People's Party." Having been involved in the process of enlarging the Community to include the UK, Ireland and Denmark, Lücker also went on to play an important role in developing relations with Latin America, in enlarging the EEC to the south, and the entry of Greece.

In 1985, aged 70, Lücker retired from the European Parliament and withdrew from active politics. But he remained much in demand as an adviser on European matters. Hans August Lücker was distinguished among other things with the Grand Cross with the star and shoulder band given by the Republic of Germany for distinguished service. In 1986, he received the Robert Schuman medal from the EPP parliamentary group in the European Parliament for his services to European integration.

Press release of Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament

Hans August Lücker, on the occasion of his 90th birthday (2 March 2005)