In this July 31, 2016 picture, Hildegard Hamm-Bruecher, former German politician and publicist, arrives for a memorial event at the Bavarian Parliament for the nine victims of a shooting at the Olympia shopping center in Munich, Germany,. Hildegard Hamm-Bruecher, the “Grand Dame” of the pro-business Free Democratic Party, FDP, and its failed candidate for German president in 1994, has died. She was 95. The FDP in Bavaria announced the death Friday Dec. 9, 2016 without providing further details. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
December 09, 2016 - 2:34 AM
BERLIN - Hildegard Hamm-Bruecher, the "Grand Dame" of the pro-business Free Democratic Party and its failed candidate for German president in 1994, has died. She was 95.
The FDP in Bavaria announced the death Friday without providing further details.
Hamm-Bruecher entered politics with the FDP in Bavaria in 1948, and served as a member of federal parliament from 1976 until her retirement in 1990.
She was put forward as the FDP's candidate for president in 1994, but lost on the third ballot to Roman Herzog, the candidate of then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats.
FDP leader Christian Lindner remembered Hamm-Bruecher for never hesitating to fight for what she thought was right, and being particularly committed to bettering education because she saw it as the "best prerequisite to provide all people a fair chance."
News from © The Associated Press, 2016