# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/f-w-de-klerk
# Generated: 2026-08-31T14:57:53.260Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/f-w-de-klerk"
name: "F. W. de Klerk"
slug: "f-w-de-klerk"
description: "He held the machinery of apartheid, then chose to dismantle it — not from conviction but from the cold calculation that South Africa was sliding toward racial civil war. The last white head of state became the man who signed away white rule."
tagline: "7th state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk%2C_1990.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "South Africa"
  isoCode: "ZA"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1936-03-18"
deathDate: "2021-11-11"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           63.92
  momentum:             0
  historical:           25.4679
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     70
  profileCompleteness:  80
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  48
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Law"
    slug: "law"
  - name: "South Africa"
    slug: "south-africa"
  - name: "Africa"
    slug: "africa"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1253947/"
    handle:    "nm1253947"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://fwdeklerk.org"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q151813"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._de_Klerk"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/F.%20W.%20de%20Klerk"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83_%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85_%D8%AF%D9%89_%D9%83%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%83"
    title: "فريديريك ويليم دى كليرك"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ban.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._de_Klerk"
    title: "F. W. de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be_x_old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%80%D1%8D%D0%B4%D1%8D%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BA_%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC_%D0%B4%D1%8D_%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA"
    title: "Фрэдэрык Вілем дэ Клерк"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%80%D1%8D%D0%B4%D1%8D%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BA_%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC_%D0%B4%D1%8D_%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA"
    title: "Фрэдэрык Вілем дэ Клерк"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA_%D0%B4%D0%B5_%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA"
    title: "Фредерик де Клерк"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bm.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%AB._%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%89._%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF_%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%95"
    title: "এফ. ডব্লিউ. ডি ক্লার্ক"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D8%B1%DB%8E%D8%AF%DB%8E%D8%B1%DB%8C%DA%A9_%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%84%DB%8E%D9%85_%D8%AF%DB%8C_%DA%A9%D9%84%DB%8E%D8%B1%DA%A9"
    title: "فرێدێریک ویلێم دی کلێرک"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A6%CF%81%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%BA_%CE%9D%CF%84%CE%B5_%CE%9A%CE%BB%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%BA"
    title: "Φρεντερίκ Ντε Κλερκ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%81._%D8%AF%D8%A8%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%88._%DA%A9%D9%84%D8%B1%DA%A9"
    title: "اف. دبلیو. کلرک"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Frederik Willem de Klerk"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederik_Willem_de_Klerk"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._W._de_Klerk"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://sr.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA_%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC_%D0%B4%D0%B5_%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/a44996e1-6750-4dda-a1ce-d0f10a453e40"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/808089"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in Johannesburg on 18 March 1936 to an influential Afrikaner family, Frederik Willem de Klerk studied at Potchefstroom University, pursued law, and entered parliament through the National Party, to which he had family ties. He served in P. W. Botha's white-minority government, holding ministerial posts and enforcing the racial segregation system he inherited. When Botha resigned in 1989, de Klerk took over as NP leader and State President — and surprised observers by deciding to end apartheid, driven by the recognition that mounting ethnic violence was pushing the country toward collapse. He legalised banned political parties, freed Nelson Mandela and other imprisoned activists, permitted anti-apartheid marches, and dismantled South Africa's nuclear weapons program, though state security forces under his watch committed widespread abuses and stoked Xhosa-Zulu violence, actions he later denied sanctioning. He negotiated the transition to universal suffrage with Mandela, publicly apologised for apartheid's harms in 1993, and oversaw the 1994 non-racial election that brought Mandela's ANC to power, with his NP finishing second. As Deputy President under Mandel