Wolfgang Lüder

Wolfgang Lüder (11 April 1937 – 19 August 2013) was a German lawyer and politician. He was educated at the Celle Ernestinum grammar school. In 1957, he began studying for the bar at the Free University of Berlin. In 1961 he passed his first legal exam, becoming an intern at the Berlin Kammergericht. In 1970 he became the assistant to the State Attorney, and then a judge at the Landgericht Berlin.

Early political career In 1957, he became a member of the FDP students' branch, known as the Liberalen Studentenbund (LSD).

Joining the FDP proper in 1962, by 1968 he had been put in charge of the Deutschen Jungdemokraten.

On the 7th of January 1981 he resigned in the wake of the Garski Affair, a scandal involving fellow FDP member Dietrich Garski.

Member of the Bundestag In 1987, he was elected to the 11th German Bundestag by proportional representation, being re-elected in 1990 as a member of the FDP's national list. Following German reunification, he was accused, without evidence, of working for the Stasi.

Personal life and involvement with other organisations Throughout his life, Lüder was a committed Humanist and member of the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands and eventually became the head of their Berlin-Brandenburg chapter. He was also a member of the group Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, the Karl Hamann trust and the German-Taiwanese Friendship Society. In 1980 he was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government and in 2012 he was given the honorary title of Stadtältester by the Berlin senate.