Wolfgang Gerhardt

Corporate boards

Alte Leipziger Lebensversicherung aG, Member of the Advisory Board

Hallesche-Nationale Krankenversicherung aG, Member of the Advisory Board

Rücker AG, Member of the Supervisory Board

Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), Member of the Advisory Board (1995)

Gerhardt was married and had two children. He died in Wiesbaden, Hesse, on 13 September 2024, at the age of 80.

Political career

Gerhardt was born in Ulrichstein, Hesse. He studied pedagogics, political science and German studies and completed his doctorate 1970 in Marburg. He was a member of the Landtag of Hesse from 1978 until 1994. Between 1987 and 1991, he served as State Minister for Science and Culture and Deputy Minister-President in the state government of Minister-President Walter Wallmann of Hesse. In this capacity, he was one of the state's representatives on the Bundesrat.

Gerhardt was member of the Deutscher Bundestag from 1994 to 2013. Gerhardt served as chair of the Free Democratic Party from 1995 to 2001 and also chaired its grouping in the Bundestag from 1998 to 2006.

From 2002 until 2012, Gerhardt was Vice President of Liberal International (LI), under the leadership of successive presidents Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck (2002–2005), John Alderdice (2005–2009), and Hans van Baalen (2009–2011).

Ahead of the 2005 national elections, Gerhard was billed as a possible foreign minister in a new centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrats; instead, newly elected Chancellor Angela Merkel entered a coalition with the Social Democratic Party. From 2006 to 2018, Gerhardt served as chairman of the board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.