Dr. Theo Waigel

Dr. Theo Waigel studied law in Munich and Würzburg. He has been a member of the CSU since 1960. From 1971, he was state chairman of the JU for four years and entered the Bundestag in 1972, where he was a member until 2002. Theo Waigel also served as economic policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU and as head of the CSU parliamentary group in Bonn. In 1989, Helmut Kohl appointed him to the cabinet as Federal Minister of Finance. During his time in office, which was marked by German reunification and the integration of Europe, he signed the Maastricht Treaty on Monetary Union on behalf of the German government in 1992, earning him the title of “father of the euro” in Germany. The former CSU leader and long-serving Federal Minister of Finance now works as a lawyer and is a popular speaker at corporate events and congresses, retaining his sense of humor and subtle irony, for which he was sometimes feared.