Björn Engholm
![Engholm in 2019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Engholm_Bj%C3%B6rn_Museum_Angerlehner_BHO-8355_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Engholm was educated at University of Hamburg. He was elected Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein in 1988, in the wake of the Barschel affair/Waterkantgate: he had been spied on and was a victim of severe defamation (HIV infection, tax evasion, etc.) by the Barschel campaign. The Social Democrats won an impressive 54.2% (up almost 10%) and gained an absolute majority for the first time ever. Engholm served as President of the Bundesrat in 1988/89.
While Engholm was popular with the electorate, he was forced to resign as party leader and Minister-President in 1993 after discrepancies surfaced over the testimonies he gave in the Barschel affair (''Schubladenaffäre'', drawer affair). A party official had paid 50,000 Deutsche Mark (kept in a kitchen drawer) to the spy of the Barschel affair to keep the espionage a secret for several weeks, to reveal the scandal on election weekend with a bigger impact and then present Engholm as a victim.
He was succeeded by Rudolf Scharping as party chairman and by Heide Simonis as Minister-President.
Since 1964, Engholm has been married to painter Barbara Engholm (born 1940); they have two daughters. Provided by Wikipedia
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Published: [2016]
Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Business and Economics 2000 - 2014
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