The President of the German Bundestag, Professor Norbert Lammert © German Bundestag/Marc-Steffen Unger

Social scientist, President of the German Bundestag

Born on 16 November 1948 in Bochum; Catholic; married, four children.

Attended elementary school, academic secondary school specialising in classics; obtained Abitur (higher education entrance qualification) in 1967. Carried out military service from 1967 to 1969. Went on to study political science, sociology, modern history and social economics at the University of Bochum and the University of Oxford (England) from 1969 to 1975; graduated in 1972 and obtained doctorate in social sciences in 1975.

Worked freelance in the field of adult education and further training as a lecturer at various academies, foundations, associations and firms; lecturer in political science at the universities of applied sciences in Bochum (economics department) and Hagen (public administration).

Has published works on party research and economic and social-policy problems.

Member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 1966; deputy chairman of the Bochum county branch of the CDU from 1977 to 1985; deputy chairman of the Westphalia-Lippe branch of the Young Union (youth section of the CDU/CSU) from 1978 to 1984; since 1986 member of the executive committee of the North-Rhine/Westphalian Land branch of the CDU and chairman of the Ruhr district branch of the CDU. Member of Bochum city council from 1975 to 1980. Since March 2001 deputy chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Member of the German Bundestag since 1980; from 1983 to 1989 deputy chairman of the Committee for the Scrutiny of Elections, Immunity and the Rules of Procedure and chairman of the German-Brazilian Parliamentary Friendship Group. Parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Science from 21 April 1989 to 10 November 1994, at the Federal Ministry of Economics from 17 November 1994, and at the Federal Ministry of Transport from 15 May 1997 to 26 October 1998. Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy from 1995 to 1998; chairman of the Bundestag group of CDU parliamentarians from North-Rhine/Westphalia since 1996; spokesman on cultural and media affairs for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 1998 to 2002; Vice-President of the German Bundestag from October 2002 to 18 October 2005, and President of the German Bundestag since 18 October 2005.

Membership of Bundestag bodies

• President of the German Bundestag
• Chairman:
  Council of Elders

Membership of other bodies

• Head:
  Delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union
• Member:
  Joint Committee
  Delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union