Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie

He is an Indonesian engineer and politician who was the president of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Only two months after his inauguration as vice president on March 1998, he succeeded Soeharto who resigned after 31 years in office. His presidency is seen as a landmark and transition to the Reformation era. Upon becoming president, he liberalized Indonesia's press and political party laws, and held an early democratic election three years sooner than scheduled, which resulted in the end of his presidency. His 517-day presidency and 71-day vice presidency are the shortest in the country's history.

Habibie was a native of Parepare, in South Sulawesi. Habibie is an ethnic Gorontalese-Javanese descent from Kabila, Gorontalo and Yogyakarta. His parents, Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie, an agriculturist of Gorontalese descent, and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo, a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta, met while studying in Bogor. Habibie's family comes from Kabila, a village now sits in the eastern part of Gorontalo Province. Habibie's father died when he was 14 years old.

Habibie went to Delft, the Netherlands, to study aviation and aerospace at the Technische Hogeschool Delft (Delft University of Technology), but for political reasons (the West New Guinea dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia), he had to continue his study at the Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH Aachen University) in Aachen, Germany . In 1960, Habibie received an engineer's degree in Germany with the title Diplom-Ingenieur. He remained in Germany as a research assistant under Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für Leichtbau, RWTH Aachen to conduct research for his doctoral degree.

On 12 May 1962, Habibie was married to Hasri Ainun Besari, a medical doctor from Bandumg. Their wedding was held in Javanese and Gorontalese culture. The couple had two sons, Ilham Akbar Habibie and Thareq Kemal Habibie.

In 1962, Habibie returned to Indonesia for three months on sick leave. During this time, he was reacquainted with Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R. Mohamad Besari. Habibie had known Hasri Ainun in childhood, junior high school and in senior high school at SMA Kristen Dago (Dago Christian Senior High School), Bandung. The two married on 12 May 1962, returning to Germany shortly afterwards . Habibie and his wife settled in Aachen for a short period before moving to Oberforstbach. In May 1963 they had a son, Ilham Akbar Habibie.

Habibie later found employment with the railway stock firm Waggonfabrik Talbot, where he became an advisor in designing train wagons. Due to his work with Makosh, the head of train construction offered his position to Habibie upon retirement three years later, but Habibie refused the position.

In 1965, Habibie delivered his dissertation in aerospace engineering and received the grade of "very good," giving him the title Doktoringenieur (Dr.-Ing.). The same year, he accepted Hans Ebner's offer to continue his research on Thermoelastisitas and work toward his Habilitation, but he declined the offer to join RWTH as a professor. His thesis about light construction for supersonic or hypersonic states also attracted offers of employment from companies such as Boeing and Airbus, which Habibie again declined.

Habibie did accept a position with Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in Hamburg. There, he developed theories on thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics known as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively. He worked for Messerschmitt on the development of the Airbus A-300B aircraft. In 1974, he was promoted to vice president of the company.