Manfred Lahnstein (born 20 December 1937) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD). In 1982 he was German Federal Minister of Finance as well as Federal Minister of Economics and until 2004 worked for the media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Early life

The son of a country doctor in

Erkrath Erkrath () is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Erkrath is situated on the river Düssel, directly east of Düsseldorf and west of Wuppertal, close to the famous Neandertal. It has two stations, ...

, Manfred Lahnstein grew up with three siblings.

Career

In 1982, Lahnstein became

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

's minister of finance under

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming C ...

. To 1983 he was professional politician. In 1983 Manfred Lahnstein was recruited by Bertelsmann AG in Gütersloh, from the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

. At Bertelsmann, he was initially on the board responsible for printing and industrial enterprises, and moved in 1994 as a member of the Supervisory Board. From 1998 to 2004 he worked for the Bertelsmann Group, as special representative of the Board. From 1986, he is professor of culture and media management at the

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg The Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg is one of the larger universities of music in Germany. It was founded 1950 as ''Staatliche Hochschule für Musik'' (Public college of music) on the base of the former private acting school of Annema ...

. Since 1994, he heads in Hamburg the consulting firm Lahnstein & Partners, International Consultants. Since 1996, he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of one of Germany's largest private foundations, the

ZEIT-Stiftung The charitable foundation ''Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius'' (house style: ZEIT-Stiftung) is registered in Hamburg. Its aim is to fund projects in research and scholarship, arts and culture, as well as education and training. It was fo ...

. He was the first German and Non-Jew to become Chairman of the Board of Governors at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming I ...

in 2001, where he had been Governor since 1996. The

Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society The Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society at the University of Haifa was founded in 2001. The institute was started by the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and Professor Dres. h.c. Manfred Lahnstein. Th ...

at the University of Haifa was founded in 2001 on this occasion by the ZEIT-Stiftung. In February 2009, he was appointed to the Supervisory Board of the London-based investment company

Berger Berger is a surname in both German and French, although there is no etymological connection between the names in the two languages. The French surname is an occupational name for a shepherd, from Old French ''bergier'' (Late Latin ''berbicarius'', ...

Lahnstein Middelhoff & Partners LLP (BLM Partners). Lahnstein is an adviser to the Saudi conglomerate

Olayan Group The Olayan Group is a multinational enterprise established in 1947 by Suliman S. Olayan (5 November 1918 - 4 July 2002), with an actively managed portfolio of global investments. The group's primary parent company, Olayan Investments Company Est ...

and the investment bank Rothschild.

Personal life

Lahnstein is married to Sonja Lahnstein-Kandel. They live in Hamburg and have one daughter and a son from his first marriage.

Other activities

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as the ...

(FES), MemberMembers

(FES).

References

External links

Curriculum vitae
of Prof. Dres. h.c. Manfred Lahnstein on

, Haifa, Israel. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lahnstein, Manfred 1937 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 1983–1987 Finance ministers of Germany Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Heads of the German Chancellery Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany