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Theo Waigel
Photo: J. Patrick Fischer, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons15

Theo Waigel

German politician (born 1939)

Theodor Waigel (born 22 April 1939) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). He represented Neu-Ulm in the Bundestag from 1976 to 2002.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Theo Waigel (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 22, 1939.1

About

Waigel is a lawyer, and earned a doctorate in 1967. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1972 to 2002. He served as Federal Minister of Finance of Germany in the Cabinet of Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 1989 to 1998, and as Chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria from 1988 to 1999. He is known as the father of the Euro, the European currency. He played a vital role in its introduction as German Minister of Finance. He also managed to impose an austerity program on West Germans and overcome the massive deficits of German unification to meet the strict fiscal benchmarks mandated by Europe's single currency. In 2009, he was appointed Honorary Chairman of the CSU.

From Wikipedia’s article on Theo Waigel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedUniversity of Würzburg3

Waigel was born in Ursberg to a farming family originally from the Swabian village of Oberrohr. When he was six years old, his older brother, August, was killed in France during World War II.

From Wikipedia’s article on Theo Waigel (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: jurist, lawyer, politician.7

  • 1998 to 2002Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1994 to 1998Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1990 to 1994Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1989 to 1998Federal Minister of Finance4
  • 1989 to 1998Chair, Federal Ministry of Finance6
  • 1988 to 1999Chair, Christian Social Union of Bavaria5
  • 1987 to 1990Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1983 to 1987Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1982 to 1989Chairperson, Q10244434
  • 1980 to 1983Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1976 to 1980Member of the German Bundestag4
  • 1972 to 1976Member of the German Bundestag4

Personal life

  • BornApr 22, 1939, Ursberg8
  • CitizenshipGermany9
  • SpouseIrene Epple-Waigel10

From 1966 to 1993 Waigel was married to Karin Waigel (two children). Since 1994 he has been married to the Olympic alpine skier Irene Epple; they have one child. Waigel is a Roman Catholic.

From Wikipedia’s article on Theo Waigel (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politics

Role in Bavarian politics

In May 1993, Waigel announced that we would leave national politics and run for the state premiership of Bavaria against his rival, Edmund Stoiber. During what turned into a bitter struggle, it was revealed that he was estranged from his wife and had been in a long-standing relationship with former Olympic skier Irene Epple. In the end, he failed to win the premiership but stayed on as party leader. In late 1995, Waigel was re-elected to the CSU leadership with 95 percent of the vote.

Following the 1998 elections, Waigel was succeeded by Oskar Lafontaine. At the time, he was Germany's longest-serving postwar Finance Minister.

By the end of the 1990s, Waigel and Minister-President Stoiber of Bavaria were locked in a bitter rivalry for control of the state and its ruling party, the CSU. Stoiber had been a vociferous critic of the creation of a single European currency and he has also infuriated both Kohl and Waigel by proposing that wealthy states like Bavaria be freed from having to underwrite social security costs for poorer states. In late 1998, Stoiber succeeded Waigel as chairman of the CSU.

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Since his retirement from German and European politics, Waigel has held paid and unpaid positions, including:

Liechtenstein, Honorary Consul

AachenMünchener Lebensversicherung AG, Member of the Supervisory Board

Accor, Member of the Board of Directors

Alcatel, Member of the Advisory Board

Bayerische Gewerbebau AG, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Bayerische HypoVereinsbank, Member of the European Advisory Board

Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), Chairman of the Advisory Board

Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Member of the European Advisory Board

Emerson Electric, Member of the European Advisory Board

EnBW, Member of the Advisory Board

Fendt, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2007)

Swissair, Member of the Advisory Board

Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Co-Chairman of the Board of Trustees (alongside Hans-Jochen Vogel)

University of Augsburg, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Institute for Bavarian History at LMU Munich, Member of the Board of Trustees

Institute of the Regions of Europe, Member of the Board of Patrons

Kissinger Sommer, Member of the Board of Trustees

Eugen Biser Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees

Hanns Seidel Foundation, Member of the Board of Executives

German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Member of the Board of Executives

After serving as Of counsel with the Munich office of law firm GSK Stockmann + Kollegen for many years, Waigel – alongside Alexander Radwan, among others – joined Waigel Rechtsanwälte in 2016.

In 2008, following revelations about violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the German industrial conglomerate Siemens agreed to install Waigel as an outside corporate monitor for four years. Waigel was the first compliance monitor who is not a U.S. national. He served in this position between January 2009 and October 2012.

In 2011, Waigel served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Munich bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In 2012, Waigel joined a newly established external advisory panel under the leadership of Jürgen Hambrecht at Deutsche Bank, which was to review compensation and governance at the company.

Even after the end of his political career, Waigel was a CSU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2009, 2010, 2017 and 2022.

In 2013, Waigel was offered the role of president of TSV 1860 Munich but decided against it. Amid the 2015 FIFA corruption case, he declined offers to join an advisory board to the 2016 FIFA Reform Committee.

From 2016 to 2022, following an appointment by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Waigel served on a three-member panel (alongside Michael Gerhardt and Krista Sager) to oversee the implementation of a new law designed to avoid potential conflicts of interest, requiring senior German officials from the chancellor to deputy ministers to observe a cooling-off period if they want to quit the government for a job in business.

Alongside David Gold, Baron Gold and Noëlle Lenoir, Waigel was appointed by Airbus to an Independent Compliance Review Panel (ICRP) in 2017, amid investigations by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the French National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption in the company's civil aviation business. In 2021, he was appointed to co-chair – alongside Brigitte Zypries – an independent expert commission established by audit firm Ernst & Young to assess its involvement in the Wirecard scandal.

From Wikipedia’s article on Theo Waigel (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2002Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg11
  • 1997Dinosaur of the Year11
  • 1997Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic11
  • 1997Orden wider den tierischen Ernst11 12
  • Date not recordedBavarian Order of Merit11
  • Date not recordedGreat Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany11
  • Date not recordedhonorary presidency11

Sources

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