Christian Wulff

Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (born 19 June 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012.

He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the post of President of Germany since Heinrich Lübke (1959–1969) and the first President to have been born in the post-World War II period.

His father left the family, and he grew up with his mother.

As a teenager, he took responsibility for the care of his younger sister, after his mother developed multiple sclerosis.

After completing his Abitur at the Ernst Moritz Arndt Gymnasium in Osnabrück, Wulff studied law with a specialisation in economics at the University of Osnabrück.

He joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 1975.

Since 1975, Wulff has been a member of the CDU.

From 1978 to 1980, he served as federal chairman of the Schülerunion, a political high school student organization affiliated with the Christian Democrats.

From 1979 to 1983, he was on the executive board of the Junge Union and became its state chairman in Lower Saxony in 1983.

Since 1984, he sat on the CDU's state party council of Lower Saxony, serving as its chairman from 1994 to 2008.

However, he decided to resign from the board in order to pursue his law degree, which he completed in 1986.

The same year, he was elected a city councillor in his hometown.

In 1987 and 1990, he passed the first and second state examinations in law, and has since worked as an attorney.

The Christian Democrats, in the political wilderness since the 1990 Schröder victory, were returned to power with an absolute majority in the state parliament, gaining 48.3% of the vote.

The Christian Democrats made Wulff candidate for Minister President of the state in the run-up of the 1994 parliamentary election.

However, the popular incumbent Gerhard Schröder won an absolute majority in the Lower Saxony legislature, while the state CDU under Wulff received one of its worst results, leading some observers to doubt the wisdom of the provincial party nominating a young and neophyte candidate for Premier.

After four years in opposition, the 1998 legislative assembly election brought another opportunity for Wulff to become Minister President.

Indeed, the federal Christian Democrat party, led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, pinned their hopes on Wulff – a Wulff victory would have stopped the inevitable rise of Schröder to the Social Democrat nomination for Chancellor.

However, supported by a wave of sympathy for his potential candidacy for chancellor in the 1998 federal election, Schröder was returned to power by an enhanced majority – leaving Wulff to serve five more years as state leader of the opposition.

Schröder won the 1998 federal election, leaving the post of Minister President to his anointed successor, Interior minister Gerhard Glogowski.

The latter soon stumbled over a scandal involving free travel paid by TUI and was succeeded by young parliamentary leader Sigmar Gabriel.

Wulff had been one of the four deputy chairmen of the CDU party at the federal level after 7 November 1998, and had been a board member of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation after 2003.

In the wake of the 1999 scandal, as well as rising discontent with Schröder's federal cabinet, the Christian Democrats rose in the opinion polls and became a serious contender for power in the 2003 parliamentary election.

A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the state of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010.

With Lower Saxony announcing deeper cuts of education and municipal services, the stage was set for the 2003 election campaign.

Wulff entered the race as the favourite to win the election and essentially campaigned on a platform of fiscal restraint and clear-cut reforms in the areas of law enforcement and education.

Both issues were decisive in the elections that led to a change in fortunes for the two major parties.

Wulff was sworn in as Minister President on 4 March 2003, as the head of a coalition between centre-right Christian Democrats and liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

As Minister President of Lower Saxony, Wulff pursued a multitude of reforms, including a restructuration of the primary education system in the state, as well as an increase of police officers on the beat.

When Wulff took office, Lower Saxony faced a severe budget crisis, resulting from years of public deficits.

Painful cuts to public expenditure were enacted and implemented against considerable political resistance.

The measures included cuts in university funding and in benefits for the blind.

Other policies concern the reform of the administration (especially the abolition of certain district authorities).

Budgetary problems continued to overshadow Wulff's policies, albeit with somewhat less pressure.

Many measures have remained controversial.

He was elected to the presidency in the 30 June 2010 presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Joachim Gauck and taking office immediately, although he was not sworn in until 2 July.

With the age of 51, he became Germany's youngest president.

On 17 February 2012, Wulff resigned as President of Germany, facing the prospect of prosecution for allegations of corruption relating to his prior service as Minister President of Lower Saxony.

In 2014, he was acquitted of all corruption charges by the Hanover regional court.

Wulff was born in Osnabrück and is Roman Catholic.