His civil demeanour and his cordial nature – something of a contrast to German nationalist traditions and the stern character of chancellor Konrad Adenauer – largely contributed to the stabilization of democracy in West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder years.

[2] Heuss was born in Brackenheim, a small town and wine-making community near Heilbronn in Württemberg, on the border between the historic regions of Swabia and Franconia.

The minister presiding over the Lutheran wedding ceremony held in Straßburg was Albert Schweitzer, a close friend of Elly.

[5][6][7][8][9] After his studies Heuss worked as a political journalist in Berlin and from 1905 until 1912 presided over the magazine Die Hilfe ("The Aid") published by Friedrich Naumann.

With Naumann, Heuss in 1903 joined the liberal Free-minded Union, which in 1910 merged into the Progressive People's Party (Fortschrittliche Volkspartei), in which he was engaged until its dissolution in 1918.

However, on 23 March 1933, along with his four fellow DStP parliamentarians, Heuss voted in favour of the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz), granting Chancellor Adolf Hitler quasi-dictatorial powers.

[12] Alternative views of Hermann Dietrich, Weimar Republic finance minister claim that he was part of the majority in favor of voting for the enabling law.

[13] When Germany became a one-party state, the DStP was dissolved on 28 June 1933 and Heuss was divested of his Reichstag mandate by decree of Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick with effect from 8 July.

[15] After World War II the US Office of Military Government gave Heuss the licence for one of the first post-war newspapers, the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung in Heidelberg[16] and on 24 September 1945 appointed him the first Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs in the German state of Württemberg-Baden under his fellow party member Minister-President Reinhold Maier.

Heuss's plans for a new national anthem were aborted by Adenauer, who – in rare accordance with Kurt Schumacher – had the third stanza of the old Deutschlandlied established in 1952.

The president, accompanied by Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano, was overwhelmed by the warm reception in Athens, considering that the country had heavily suffered under German occupation in World War II.

As a representative of the democratic-liberal and cultural traditions of Germany, he was a symbol of confidence in the German post-war republic in the international community.

[1] His rhetoric encouraged the Germans to never forget the Holocaust and precisely described the crimes against the Jews but he refrained from citing those who were responsible for their suffering.

[10] He was married to Alsace German politician, social reformer and author Elly Heuss-Knapp with whom he had one child, antifascist resistance fighter Ernst Ludwig Heuss.