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You can find further interviews with contemporary witnesses at http://www.zeitzeugen-portal.de about "time periods", "topics" or "people". At the beginning of his term as Federal President, which he took up after he had actually already retired after many years of political activity for the CDU, he was criticized for his past in the Third Reich. This then subsided. He showed himself to be unexpectedly combative and committed, putting all his energy into the matter. Like hardly any of his colleagues, he managed to make a name for himself as an integration figure in the Republic in the office of Federal President. (Rights: © ZDF)