Werner Nachmann

Werner Nachmann (12 August 1925 – 21 January 1988), was a German entrepreneur and politician, and was president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) from 1969 to 1988.

In 1962 he became a member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in 1965 he was subsequently selected in its board of directors and from 1969 onwards he held the presidency.

He is considered as an important pioneer of renewed cooperation between the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany and German-Jewish organizations.

For his work Nachmann was often honored during his lifetime, but criticism rose sharply from parts of the German-Jewish community in the early seventies as some found his efforts towards Jewish-German reconciliation as lacking sufficient distance to Germany.

In 1986, he received the Theodor Heuss prize for his services to Jewish-German reconciliation and the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Christians in the Federal Republic of Germany.