Henning Schwarz

He was interim Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein during the Barschel affair.

Henning Schwarz
Schwarz featured on a 1979 campaign poster
Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein
Interim
In office 2 October 1987 – 31 May 1988
Deputy	vacant
Preceded by	Uwe Barschel
Succeeded by	Björn Engholm
Deputy Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein
In office 26 May 1975 – 2 October 1987
Minister-President	Gerhard Stoltenberg Uwe Barschel
Preceded by	Ernst Engelbrecht-Greve
Succeeded by	Marianne Tidick (1988)
Schleswig-Holstein Cabinet Minister of Federal Affairs In office 29 May 1979 – 31 May 1988 Minister-President Gerhard Stoltenberg Uwe Barschel himself Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Marianne Tidick Minister of Justice In office 13 April 1983 – 16 December 1985 Minister-President Uwe Barschel Preceded by Karl Eduard Claussen Succeeded by Heiko Hoffmann In office 3 November 1969 – 29 Mai 1979 Minister-President Helmut Lemke Gerhard Stoltenberg Preceded by Claus-Joachim von Heydebreck Succeeded by Karl Eduard Claussen
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein In office 29 May 1979 – 2 October 1987 Preceded by Siegfried Loose Succeeded by Trutz Graf Kerssenbrock Constituency Ahrensburg In office 24 May 1971 – 24 May 1975 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Kurt Böge Constituency Segeberg-West
Personal details
Born	Henning Michael Schwarz (1928-10-05)5 October 1928 Gut Frauenholz, Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Rethwisch, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
Died	13 April 1993(1993-04-13) (aged 64) Kiel, Germany
Cause of death	Leukemia
Political party	Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) (1948–1993)
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Würzburg University of Hamburg
Occupation	Politician Lawyer Notary
Cabinet	Lemke II Stoltenberg I Stoltenberg II Stoltenberg III Barschel I Barschel II Schwarz

Schwarz was born in Bad Oldesloe. His father was German CDU politician Werner Schwarz. Schwarz studied law in Würzburg and Hamburg, receiving a Doctor of Law in 1958. He then worked as a lawyer.

From 1971 to 1975 and from 1979 to 1987 he was member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. Since 1969, he served in various cabinet positions in the Schleswig-Holstein state government under Minister-Presidents Helmut Lemke, Gerhard Stoltenberg and Uwe Barschel, most of the time as Minister of Justice. In 1975, Stoltenberg named him Deputy Minister-President, a position which he kept after Barschel became Minister-President due to Stoltenberg being appointed Federal Minister of Finance.

After the 1987 Schleswig-Holstein state election, the CDU lost their absolute majority and the Barschel affair became public. Due to a deadlock in the Landtag and the affair, new elections were called for 1988. Barschel resigned on 2 October 1987 and later died on 11 October. Schwarz, as Deputy Minister-President, became Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein on an interim basis until a new government was formed after the May 1988 election. He himself did not run in that election; CDU candidate for Ministers-President (Spitzenkandidat) instead was his Minister of Justice Heiko Hoffmann. The SPD won and Schwarz retired from politics.

Schwarz holds the distinction of being the longest-serving interim Minister-President of a German state, serving for the entire 11th legislative term, lasting about eight months. Most interim Minister-Presidents serve only for a few days (such as Michael Vesper in 2002 or Katharina Fegebank in 2018), some even for just one day on the grounds of constitutional technicalities (such as Jörg Bode in 2010 or Joachim Stamp in 2021). He is also the first and only interim Minister-President to lead his own cabinet, Kabinett Schwarz [de].

He was married and had three children. He died in Kiel.

• 1978: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

• Parliament Schleswig-Holstein:Henning Schwarz (german)