Walter Scheel (born July 8, 1919) is a German politician. As a cabinet minister in the 1960s, he brought about the downfall of the Erhard government in late 1966, when he took the Free Democratic Party, which he led, out of the coalition government. He returned to government in 1969 and served as Foreign Minister till 1974, when he became Federal President of West Germany, a post he held until 1979. He largely retreated to private life after his term of office expired. Scheel made a speech entitled Scham at the funeral of Hanns Martin Schleyer in October 1977.