LUBKE, HEINRICH

born Oct. 14, 1894, Enkhausen, Ger. died April 6, 1972, Bonn, W.Ger. politician who served as president of the German Federal Republic (195969). Lbke studied at several German universities, and after serving in World War I he was able to unify many small German farmers' organizations into the German Farmers Federation. He served as the federation's director from 1926 to 1933. Politically inactive throughout the National Socialist era (193345), Lbke helped to organize the Christian Democratic Party in Westphalia after World War II and was a member of the North RhineWestphalia Landtag (provincial diet) from 1946 to 1952. Between 1947 and 1952 he also served as the North RhineWestphalia minister of food, agriculture, and forestry. During 194950 and later from 1953 to 1959, he sat in the federal Bundestag (lower house of parliament), and in 1953 he entered the cabinet of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer as federal minister of food, agriculture, and forestry. In this post he played an important role in modernizing West German agriculture. In 1959 he was chosen to be Christian Democratic candidate for the federal presidency after Adenauer had declined to run. He was elected president in July 1959 and was reelected in 1964. Though his powers as president were constitutionally limited, he acquired considerable popularity for his dignified demeanour and discretion and at times effectively intervened in domestic political affairs, especially during the last period of Adenauer's chancellorship. He resigned from office in early 1969.