13 Facts About Christian Schwarz-Schilling

In 1950, Schwarz-Schilling got his Abitur at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Gymnasium in Berlin.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling continued to study History and East Asian Languages and Culture at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

In 1966, Christian Schwarz-Schilling was elected into the regional parliament of Hesse and in 1967 he became the general secretary of the CDU in Hesse.

Since 1971, Christian Schwarz-Schilling became involved in national politics, becoming member of several councils.

In 1976 Christian Schwarz-Schilling was elected into the Bundestag and remained a member until 2002.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling retained his post for the next three cabinets.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling was never part of Kohl's inner circle and is, by some, regarded as an unremarkable minister.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling was instrumental in pushing the GSM-project of France, Germany and Italy forward both technically and politically.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling was responsible for letting the UK become part of it.

In 1998 the sub-committee became a full committee and Christian Schwarz-Schilling became its vice-chairperson, serving until 2002.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling sold his shares in Sonnenschein KG to the Nixdorf Group only a few hours before his appointment as Post Minister.

Christian Schwarz-Schilling was unpopular in the OHR in part due to his penchant for dozing off during meetings and his efforts to link German business interests to various projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including facilitating access by his own telecommunications consulting company to the Bosnian Serb entity.

Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak replaced Christian Schwarz-Schilling - who was originally intended to be the last holder of the post - on 30 June 2007.