"After more than 35 years in the state parliament, an era ends with the departure of Norbert Kartmann at the end of this year," said the President of the Hessian Parliament, Astrid Wallmann (CDU), when she said goodbye to her 73-year-old party friend in the last plenary session in which he took part.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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"For health reasons, I unfortunately no longer see myself in a position to support the people in my constituency, in the Wetterau district and in Hesse, as I have always tried to do in my many years as a member of parliament," wrote the Union politician at the beginning of December in a press release.

It was primarily aimed at the voters, who regularly gave him a direct mandate in his home country.

But the down-to-earth nature of the secondary school and junior high school teacher for physics and religion should not be confused with provincialism.

Kartmann's father moved from Transylvania to Hesse during World War II.

From there, at the age of eleven, the son traveled for the first time to the then communist-ruled country of his ancestors.

"Portrait of a European"

His close ties to Romania meant that the Union politician met the current President Klaus Johannis regularly when he was still the mayor of Sibiu.

When Kartmann was awarded the highest medal that Romania has to award in 2018 in the Wiesbaden state parliament, the ambassador in Berlin, Emilian Hurezeanu, drew the "portrait of a European" in his laudatory speech.

However, he also characterized the Union politician as a "rigorous and determined Protestant" and a "jovial, comfortable and free-thinking personality, valued by Catholics and Orthodox alike".

Kartmann started out as an education politician in the state parliament.

He became parliamentary group leader when Roland Koch moved into the state chancellery in 1999.

In the black money affair, which brought the head of government and the Hessian CDU to the brink of collapse, Kartmann met the barrage of attacks from all sides with calm steadfastness.

Successor moves up via state list

Five years later, he gave up his seat to the up-and-coming, later Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung and became President of the state parliament.

He exercised his office, especially in the plenary sessions, with a composure that was occasionally interpreted as casualness.

This may be explained by Kartmann's experiences with communism in the land of his ancestors and with party politics in Hesse.

Nothing could shake him so easily.

When Kartmann gave up a further term at the beginning of the current electoral term, he had held the position for 16 years, longer than any other parliamentary speaker.

He attaches importance to the fact that he actually wanted to say goodbye to politics even then.

His seat in the state parliament will be taken by a successor who will move up via the party's state list in the year remaining until the end of the electoral period.