Matthias Wissmann

Matthias Wissmann
Federal Minister of Transport
In office
1993–1998
Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Preceded by Günther Krause
Succeeded by Franz Müntefering
Member of the Bundestag
In office
1976 – 2007
Personal details
Born (1949-04-15) 15 April 1949
Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
(now Germany)
Citizenship German
Nationality Germany
Political party CDU
Alma mater
Occupation Lawyer

Matthias Wissmann (born 15 April 1949) is the president of the Verband der Automobilindustrie.

Since 1999 Wissmann has been a partner with the law firm WilmerHale.[1]

Early life and education

Wissmann was born in Ludwigsburg on 15 April 1949. He studied law at the University of Bonn. He became a member of K.D.St.V. Alania Bonn, a catholic student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband.

Political career

Since 1965, Wissmann has been active in politics. He became a member of the political youth organisation Junge Union and in 1968 of the CDU. From 1973 to 1983 Wissmann was federal leader of the Junge Union. From 1998 to 2000 he was federal treasurer of the CDU.[2] By April 2000, following the CDU donations scandal, he had to report annual deficit of more than $8 million and oversaw efforts to cut personnel, rent out part of its new Berlin headquarters, and shrink its publications.[3]

Member of the Bundestag

In 1976, Wissmann was elected to the German Bundestag for the Christlich-Demokratische Union. In 1981, he was chairman of the commission Jugendprotest im demokratischen Staat (youth protest in the democratic state) until 1983. In the years 1983 until 1993 he was the spokesman of his parliamentary group for economic affairs, under the leadership of successive chairmen Alfred Dregger and Wolfgang Schäuble.

From 1998 to 2002 Wissmann was the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs and Technology. From 2002 he served as chairman of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union.

During his time in parliament, Wissmann also served as partner at the international law firm WilmerHale. At the firm, he was a member of the Corporate group, where he focused on transactions having a transatlantic dimension, and headed te Legal Strategy and Public Policy practice group in Berlin.[4]

Minister

On 21 January 1993, Wissmann became Federal Minister of Research and Technology in the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Only four month later, after the resignation of Günther Krause, he became Federal Minister of Transport on 13 May 1993.

During his time in office, Wissmann – together with the Governing Mayor of Berlin Eberhard Diepgen and the Minister-President of Brandenburg Manfred Stolpe – committed to Schönefeld as the site for the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport on 28 May 1996. This so-called consensus decision was later affirmed by the respective state legislatures.[5]

Wissmann left the government after his party lost the federal elections on 27 September 1998.

Life after politics

Wissmann laid down his parliamentary mandate by 31 May 2007 to become the president of the German Automobile Industry Association (VDA) from 1 June 2007.

In 2014, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel appointed Wissmann to the government’s Advisory Board on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).[6]

In October 2016, Wissmann was unanimously elected as president of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA) for a two-year mandate, succeeding Yong-geun Kim.[7]

Other activities

Corporate boards

Non-profits

References

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