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Since 1999 Wissmann has been a partner with the law firm WilmerHale.[1]
Early life and education
Wissmann was born in Ludwigsburg on 15 April 1949. He studied law at the university of Bonn. He became a member of K.D.St.V. Alania Bonn, a catholic student fraternity that is member of the Cartellverband.
Political career
Since 1965, Wissmann has been active in politics. He became a member of the political youth organisation Junge Union and in 1968 of the CDU. From 1973 to 1983 he was federal leader of the Junge Union.
In 1976, Wissmann was elected to the German Bundestag for the Christlich-Demokratische Union. In 1981, he was chairman of the commissionJugendprotest im demokratischen Staat (youth protest in the democratic state) until 1983. In the years 1983 until 1993 he was the spokesman of his parliamentary group for economic affairs, under the leadership of successive chairmen Alfred Dregger and Wolfgang Schäuble.
On 21 January 1993, Wissmann became Federal Minister of Research and Technology in the government of ChancellorHelmut Kohl. Only four-month later, after the resignation of Günther Krause, he became Federal Minister of Transport on 13 May 1993.
During Wolfgang Schäuble's tenure as party chairman from 1998 to 2000, Wissmann served as federal treasurer of the CDU.[3] By April 2000, following the CDU donations scandal, he had to report an annual deficit of more than $8 million and oversaw efforts to cut personnel, rent out part of the party's new Berlin headquarters, and shrink its publications.[4]
From 1998 to 2002 Wissmann also was the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs and Technology. From 2002 he served as chairman of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union.
During his time in parliament, Wissmann also became partner at the international law firm WilmerHale. At the firm, he was a member of the corporate group, where he focused on transactions having a transatlantic dimension, and headed the Legal Strategy and Public Policy practice group in Berlin.[5]
Life after politics
Wissmann laid down his parliamentary mandate by 31 May 2007 to become the president of the German Automobile Industry Association (VDA) from 1 June 2007. He held this office until February 2018. During his time in office, he also served as vice-president of Pro Mobilität, an industry group lobbying for improvements in Germany's street network.[6]
In October 2016, Wissmann was unanimously elected as president of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA) for a two-year mandate, succeeding Yong-geun Kim.[8] Since 2017, he has also been Vice President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI).[9]
Other activities
Corporate boards
ODDO BHF, Member of the supervisory board (from 2019)[10]
Freitag & Co., Member of the advisory board (since 2016)[11]
Speaker: Marieluise Beck-Oberdorf, Petra Kelly, Otto Schily until 3 April 1984; Annemarie Borgmann, Waltraud Schoppe, Antje Vollmer until 30./31. January 1985;
Sabine Bard, Hannegret Hönes, Christian Schmidt until 1 February 1986; Annemarie Borgmann, Hannegret Hönes, Ludger Volmer until 18 July 1986); Willi Hoss (8 September 1986)
Speaker: Thomas Ebermann, Bärbel Rust, Waltraud Schoppe until 26 January 1988; Helmut Lippelt, Regula Schmidt-Bott, Christa Vennegerts until 30 January 1989, Helmut Lippelt, Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin, Antje Vollmer until 15 January 1990; Willi Hoss, Waltraud Schoppe (until 21 June 1990), Marianne Birthler (from 4 October 1990), Antje Vollmer