Jürgen Todenhöfer
Encyclopedia
Todenhöfer studied law at the universities of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
. He graduated as a doctor of law
Doctor of law
Doctor of Law or Doctor of Laws is a doctoral degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country, and includes degrees such as the LL.D., Ph.D., J.D., J.S.D., and Dr. iur.-Argentina:...
in 1969 and worked as a judge from 1972 on. He became a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) in 1970 and was a member of the German parliament from December 13, 1972, to December 20, 1990, (five election periods). He also acted as party spokesman for development policy and arms control.
In 1980 he visited Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-occupied Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and started to raise money for refugees. Todenhöfer is one of the most prominent German critics of the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-led wars against Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and against Iraq starting in the years 2001 and 2003, respectively. Till 2008 he has been vice chairman of the executive board at German media company Hubert Burda Media
Hubert Burda Media
Hubert Burda Media is a German privately held, family-owned global media company with its origins in printing and magazine publishing. The company is headquartered in Offenburg and Munich, has additional main offices in Berlin and Hamburg and has more than 7400 employees...
.
He claims that during the war in Iraq the Bush administration was deceiving the public and that the US war in Iraq has killed several hundred thousand Iraqi civilians. He has visited Iraq several times and did original research for his book Why do you kill, Zaid.
He welcomed the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
arrest warrant against the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese dictator Omar al-Bashir
Omar al-Bashir
Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister...
and sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, questioning the liability of the ICC. He asked for the reasons which led the prosecutor to indict the Sudanese dictator but not the US president or the British prime minister.
Major works
- Wer weint schon um Abdul und Tanaya? (2003)amazon
- Andy und Marwa. Zwei Kinder und der Krieg (2005)amazon
- Warum tötest du, Zaid? (2008)amazon
- Why Do You Kill?: The Untold Story of the Iraqi Resistance, (2008), ISBN 978-1-934708-14-9 amazon
- Teile Dein Glück (2010) amazon
External links
- Jürgen Todenhöfer's webpage: www.juergentodenhoefer.com
- Jürgen Todenhöfer Facebook :Facebook Jürgen Todenhöfer'
- Jürgen Todenhöfer Facebook :Facebook.Teile-dein-Glück
- Jürgen Todenhöfer's book "Who cries for Abdul and Tanaya? - The Falsities in the Crusade against Terror" (in German)
- Jürgen Todenhöfer's book "Why do you kill, Zaid?" (German/English)
- Photo at WikiMedia.org
