Bernd Schmidbauer (born 29 May 1939 in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the ...

) is a former

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

politician and member of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

(CDU). He was Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from January to December 1991 and Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor from 1991 to 1998, as well as coordinator of the intelligence services.

Life

After graduating from high school in 1959, Schmidbauer studied physics, chemistry and biology at the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

, where he passed the scientific examination in 1967 and the pedagogical examination in 1969. He then worked as a teacher at the Boxberg Gymnasium in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, most recently as director of studies. Bernd Schmidbauer is married and has three children.

Political career

From 1971 to 1989, Schmidbauer was a member of the district council of the Rhine-Neckar district and had been chairman of the CDU parliamentary group here since 1976. From 1983 to 2009, he was a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

as a directly elected member of parliament for the Rhine-Neckar constituency. From 1987 to 1990, he was chairman of the ''Enquête Commission on Precautions for the Protection of the Earth's Atmosphere''. In addition, he headed the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Working Group of the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties ( ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic and conservative political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social U ...

parliamentary group in the Bundestag from 1988 to 1990. On 24 January 1991, Schmidbauer was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the federal government led by Chancellor

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

. As early as 18 December 1991, he moved to the Federal Chancellery as Minister of State to the Chancellor. Here he was commissioner for the federal intelligence services: the

Federal Intelligence Service The Federal Intelligence Service (, ; BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Chancellor's Office. The BND headquarters is located in central Berlin. The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign cou ...

, the

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) at the state level, the fed ...

and the Military Counter-Intelligence Service. Because of his tendency to become active himself in the field of intelligence, Schmidbauer was given the nickname "008" - a reference to James Bond alias 007. In 1992, for example, two German hostages were released in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, where Schmidbauer was involved in the tough negotiations. In 1994, he secured the release of Helmut Szimkus, a German sentenced to death in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Schmidbauer also had a role in the Plutonium affair. Schmidbauer justified the deployment of Werner Mauss, who negotiated the release of hostages of ELN

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

s in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

on behalf of the German government, as an "emergency humanitarian measure." He was a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (''Parlamentarisches Kontrollgremium - PKGr'') from December 2002 and was an assessor on the executive committee of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from January 2006. On 16 May 2006, Schmidbauer announced that he was suspending his work in the Parliamentary Control Committee until the allegations against the BND in the so-called journalist affair had been clarified. As justification, Schmidbauer stated that some of the spying on journalists occurred during his time as intelligence coordinator. At the same time, Schmidbauer stated that he had "no knowledge of the events that are the subject of today's discussions." On 28 April 2008, Schmidbauer announced that he would not run again in the upcoming Bundestag election.

References