Jimmy Carter: The peace president
Jimmy Carter was the most extraordinary president of the USA: Nobel Peace Prize winner, solar activist, humble Christian, preacher, fighter for equal rights for women and black people, close to home.
Some German newspapers described the now deceased US president as the “most incompetent president of all time” while he was still in office. In reality, Jimmy Carter proved to be one of the most future-oriented and forward-looking. Back in the 1970s, he installed solar panels on the White House, which his successor Ronald Reagan had dismantled on his first day in office. Symbolic for Carter and symbolic for Reagan. Jimmy Carter was already dreaming of the “solar age” 50 years ago, as he told me at a dinner in Bochum in 2012 (photo): “But my successor wanted to extend the oil age”, he added with a laugh and “But I wanted the solar world revolution”. He was often way ahead of his time. In the middle of the oil crisis, he had 32 solar cells built on the roof of the White House.
Until the age of 98, Jimmy Carter lived in his self-built house in his birthplace, Plains in the US state of Georgia, 200 kilometers from the state capital Atlanta. In the village of Plains, he is still “Mr. Jimmy” to everyone. Now he has also died there in his self-built bedroom. The talented 39th President of the USA preached in one of Plains’ eight churches Sunday after Sunday for decades. Carter was married to his wife Rosalynn for 77 years. She died at the age of 96 in November 2023. Rosalynn and Jimmy had the longest marriage of any US president. Jimmy Carter’s political career would be unthinkable without his wife. They lived and worked as a political dream couple. Rosalynn was the first First Lady to have her own office and staff in the White House. She also attended cabinet meetings. In her biography, she wrote that her husband took advice from her, but did not dictate to her. Jimmy Carter himself saw his wife as his “most important advisor”. Carter’s Middle East peace mediation essentially goes back to Rosalynn Carter. She had already campaigned for him politically when he became governor of his home state of Georgia in 1970. During the 1976 presidential election campaign, she gave countless campaign speeches for her husband in 42 states. The Süddeutsche Zeitung called her “a first lady for the history books”.
A friend of Jesus, Carter was diagnosed with cancer, underwent treatment in hospital, but retired to his beloved home to die and in the end refused all medical treatment for the cancer. He has now died at the age of one hundred. In 1979, Carter negotiated the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and campaigned for a separate Palestinian state. Behind the scenes, he ensured that the racial conflict in Rhodesia was ended during his time in office and he campaigned for women’s legal rights in the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Throughout his political life, Jimmy Carter was a fighter for human rights worldwide. When we met for dinner in Bochum, he had come from a tour for human rights in the Middle East that morning. He had an international vision of the Gospel: equality and dignity for all people. Carter: “In the eyes of God, all people are equal”.
When asked whether he was afraid of death, the devout Baptist said: “I have tried to live my life according to Jesus Christ. That’s why I’m not afraid of what comes after death”. He retired to his beloved home in spring 2023 to die.
The fact that he was replaced by Ronald Reagan after just one term in office bothered Jimmy Carter less than his wife. After he was voted out of office in 1980, she said: “I’m bitter enough for the two of us”. There was no sign of bitterness in our conversation in Bochum either. Jimmy Carter felt needed worldwide as a political activist – even without political office. As the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he campaigned for peace through political compromise in all major areas of conflict right up to the end. He lived for peace. It was and remains his great and lasting achievement that he brought Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwer el-Sadat together at Camp David in 1978 and that the famous Camp David Agreement was reached after twelve intensive days of negotiations: The basis for the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Begin and Sadat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the peace treaty brokered by Carter.
Jimmy Carter will be remembered as a great peace broker. Of all previous presidents of the USA, he has reached the highest age. Today’s world needs such peace mediators more than ever. Jimmy Carter is a hero to me. He remains an inspiration. Der Spiegel on his death: “We actually need someone like him everywhere right now.”
