Former German environment minister Klaus Töpfer dies at 85

A former German environment minister and longtime politician with the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), Klaus Töpfer has died at age 85.

Töpfer, lead the Environment Ministry from 1987 to 1994, died on Saturday after a short but serious illness, A CDU spokeswoman confirmed his death on Tuesday.

He was credited with leaving a lasting mark on the German environmental party, and was viewed as the “green conscience” of the Christian Democrats for decades.

He remained outspoken in his advocacy for sustainable policies into old age.

He took over the ministry less than two years after it was created in the wake of the April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union.

The disaster had sent radioactive fallout into the air over Europe.

Then-chancellor Helmut Kohl responded by combining environmental issues and nuclear reactor safety programmes into a single ministry.

As early as 1988, Töpfer was advocating for a future without nuclear energy as well as fewer fossil fuels.

He was replaced as environment minister in 1994 by Angela Merkel, then a rising star in the CDU who went on to lead the country from 2005 to 2021.

Töpfer was born in Silesia, in what is now Poland, in 1938, He moved with his family to the town of Höxter in western Germany after World War II.

After stepping down from the Cabinet, Töpfer went on to work with the United Nations in several capacities between 1996 and 2006.

At the end of his life, Töpfer again lived in Höxter along with his wife.