Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (born 5 December 1971), known professionally as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is a German businessman and politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU).

In 1991, after finishing high school (Gymnasium) in Rosenheim, Guttenberg completed his mandatory military service reaching the rank of Sergeant.

From 1996 to 2002, Guttenberg was a member of the board of directors of Rhön-Klinikum AG.

Guttenberg studied law at the University of Bayreuth, where he passed the first legal state examination (said to be the equivalent of a master's degree) in 1999.

Guttenberg chose not to pursue the second state examination (the equivalent of a bar exam), and focused on running the Munich-based "Guttenberg GmbH" holding where, along with a few employees, he managed his family's significant assets and various participations.

Due to the holding's low turnover and small number of employees, it was said that Guttenberg had exaggerated his business experience.

He served as a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2011, as Secretary-General of the CSU from 2008 to 2009, as Federal Minister for Economics and Technology in 2009 and as Federal Minister of Defence from 2009 to 2011.

The Guttenberg GmbH had assets under management of at least a quarter billion euros, including a 26.5 percent stake in Rhön-Klinikum AG, which was sold in March 2002 to Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank for 260 million euros.

In 2002, Guttenberg was elected to the Bundestag as the representative of Kulmbach.

Until September 2004, he was a managing director of the KT-Kapitalverwaltung GbR in Munich.

Guttenberg studied law at the University of Bayreuth.

In early 2004, Guttenberg introduced the concept of a Privileged Partnership between Turkey and the European Union as a viable alternative to accession of Turkey to the European Union into the German political discourse.

Guttenberg based his opposition to full Turkish membership in the EU on the country's insufficient fulfillment of relevant accession criteria, for example with regard to the Cyprus dispute.

At the same time, he stressed the necessity of maintaining good relations with Turkey and was therefore critical of a French initiative to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide.

Guttenberg also repeatedly warned of the looming threat posed to German and European security by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

However, he rejected taking rash military action against Iran and instead called for an international diplomatic effort to deal with Tehran's nuclear program.

As a Member of Parliament, he was a strong critic of the far-left party Die Linke, which he accused of links to terrorists.

He was also a member of the Europa-Union Parliamentary Group of the German Bundestag and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

He was reelected in 2005, winning 60.0% of the votes in his constituency.

From October 2005 to November 2008, Guttenberg served as chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee and as spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag's Committee on disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control.

He also chaired the CSU Foreign Policy Expert Committee and the German-British parliamentary group during that time.

He successfully defended his thesis "Verfassung und Verfassungsvertrag. Konstitutionelle Entwicklungsstufen in den USA und der EU" ("Constitution and Constitutional Treaty. Stages of Constitutional Development in the USA and EU"), and was awarded the academic degree Doctor of Law ("Doktor der Rechte") in 2007.

In September 2008, the CSU suffered heavy losses in the Bavaria state election and lost its absolute majority in the Bavarian Landtag - for the first time in 46 years.

As a result of this political defeat the CSU party leadership stepped down and Horst Seehofer, the new CSU chairman and minister-president of Bavaria, appointed Guttenberg as secretary general of the CSU in November 2008.

As secretary-general, Guttenberg called for tax cuts, an increase in family benefits and structural reforms within the CSU to foster more direct political participation of the party base.

In addition to domestic policy he also emphasized his focus on international affairs.

In 2009, he was reelected again with 68.1% of the votes in his district, obtaining the highest percentage of votes of all elected representatives in Germany for that election cycle.

After the resignation of Michael Glos on 9 February 2009 Guttenberg became Federal Minister of Economics and Technology in the first Merkel cabinet.

Guttenberg, the youngest economics minister in the German post-war era, came to office in the midst of a deep global financial crisis and recession.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, several major German banks were near failure, including Hypo Real Estate, which received €102 billion of credit and guarantees from Germany's bank rescue fund.

In this case, Guttenberg opposed an overly hasty nationalization of Hypo Real Estate, which he considered only as "ultissima ratio, a measure of the very last resort".

A few months later he drafted a legislative proposal to minimize the financial risks of failing banks, which caused controversy but later became the foundation of the German bank restructuring bill.

In the case of troubled German companies asking for state aid, including automaker Opel and now-defunct mail-order service Arcandor/Quelle, Guttenberg was reluctant to commit government resources.

After the discovery of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation and the decision of the University of Bayreuth to revoke his doctorate, an affair known as Guttenberg plagiarism scandal, he resigned from all political posts in March 2011.

In 2011, Guttenberg joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Guttenberg is the chairman and a founder of Spitzberg Partners, an advisory and investment firm based in New York City.

Following accusations of plagiarism in Guttenberg's thesis, the University of Bayreuth conducted an investigation, culminating on 23 February 2011 with the revocation of Guttenberg's doctorate.

He returned to German politics during the 2017 federal election by making a speech which was widely described as a comeback.

In 2019, Guttenberg again received the title of Doctor of Philosophy, from the University of Southampton.

Guttenberg is a member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and held different positions within the party, including that of secretary general.