Christian Schmidt

Hans Сhristian Friedrich Schmidt (born 26 August 1957) is a German politician serving as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina since August 2021.

He is a member of the Christian Social Union.

As a student Schmidt joined the Junge Union (JU), the CSU youth group, in 1973.

Schmidt attended the Georg-Willhem-Steller-Gymnasium in Bad Windsheim where he completed his Abitur in 1976.

He then undertook mandatory military service in the 1st Mountain Division of the West German Army.

In 1976 he registered as a member of the CSU.

He began legal studies in 1977 in Erlangen and Lausanne.

From 1980–1982 he was chairman of the JU-District Association in Neustadt-an-der-Aisch.

Schmidt finished his legal studies with the successful completion of the required state examinations in 1982 and 1985.

In 1982 he was named Chair of the JU-Regional Association for Central Franconia, a position that he held until 1991.

From 1984 to 1990 Christian Schmidt was a town councillor in his hometown of Obernzenn and member of the District Council for Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim.

He was admitted to the bar in 1985 and practiced law until the assumption of his duties as Parliamentary State Secretary in November 2005.

From 1989 to 1993 Schmidt was also a member of the CSU State Committee, a post that he took up again in 1999.

He was member of the Bundestag for Fürth from 1990 to 2021.

Schmidt was elected to the German Parliament, the Bundestag, in the 1990 elections.

From 1991 to 2002 he was Chair of the national level CSU Working Group for Foreign, Defence and European policy.

He then went on to serve as Chair of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Defence Working Group.

In this capacity he also served as the CDU/CSU spokesman for defence policy.

He was his parliamentary group's rapporteur on the German-Polish “Good Neighbour” Treaty in 1991, as well as the 1992 German-Czechoslovakia Treaty.

Schmidt served as Chair of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group from 1994 until 1998 and as Chair for the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group from 1998 until 2005.

He has also been a member of the German-Baltic, German-Croatian, and German-Czech Parliamentary Friendship Groups.

In 1997 the Federal Minister of Defence selected Schmidt to serve on the Advisory Committee of the German-Czech Discussion Forum.

Since 1999, in addition to his duties on the CSU State Committee, Schmidt has been Chairman of the CSU-District Association in Fuerth.

Schmidt is the Chair of the CSU Regional Working Group on Foreign, Security and European Policy.

He was Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Federal Ministry of Defence from 2005 to 2013, as well as Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development from December 2013 until February 2014.

He was rapporteur for the discussions pertaining to the Parliamentary Participation Act of 2005 dealing with the deployment of the German Bundeswehr within the Federal Republic.

Schmidt entered the German Parliament as a directly elected candidate, representing Fürth.

Schmidt was named Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence by Chancellor Angela Merkel on 23 November 2005.

In this capacity he served as parliamentary and political representative for three Ministers of the Defence; Franz Josef Jung, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Thomas de Maizière.

During his time in office Schmidt advanced the establishment of a foundation to care for service members negatively impacted by the side effects of radar signals encountered during their service.

His time in office has seen several landmark events including the investigation into the wartime activities of World War II German flying ace Werner Mölders (2007), the reorientation of the Federal Republic's armed forces (since 2010) and the resignation of Defence Minister zu Guttenberg in the wake of a plagiarism scandal (2011).

Schmidt had defended zu Guttenberg against the accusations of plagiary.

Schmidt also played an instrumental role in the establishment and financing of the “Hardship Fund” (Härtefall-Stiftung).

In the 2009 elections he won 43.3% of the First Votes.

Since May 2010 he has also served as Chair of the Regional Evangelical Working Group of the CSU.

In May 2011 he was named Chair of the Federal Evangelical Working Group of the CSU/CDU.

In December 2012 he was nominated for the seventh time as the CSU candidate for the upcoming Federal Parliamentary Elections in 2013.

The CSU Assembly of Delegates awarded him 98.7% of the vote (155 of 157 votes).

This fund, maintained by the Soldiers’ Relief Association e.V., was founded in 2012 with the express remit of supporting soldiers seriously injured in the line of duty.

Schmidt served as Minister of Food and Agriculture from 2014 to 2018.