Peter Hintze: Vice-President of the Bundestag © DBT/Melde

Peter Hintze of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) was elected as Vice-President of the German Bundestag on 22 October 2013. He was born on 25 April 1950 in the town of Bad Honnef in North Rhine-Westphalia and, after studying Protestant theology in Bonn and Wuppertal, began working as a deacon in 1977. In 1980 he was ordained as a Protestant minister in Königswinter near Bonn. From 1983 to 1990 he held the position of Federal Commissioner for Civilian Service.

Spokesman on European policy

Hintze was elected the Member of the German Bundestag representing Wuppertal I constituency via the CDU party list for North Rhine-Westphalia in the first elections in reunified Germany on 2 December 1990. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Women and Youth, a position he held until May 1992. He then served as secretary general of the CDU until 1998.

While the coalition government of the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) and Alliance 90/The Greens held power from 1998 to 2005, Hintze was spokesman on European policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. During this period, he held the office of vice-president of the Centrist Democrat International from 2001 and the position of vice-president of the European People’s Party (EPP) from 2002.

Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics

After the grand coalition government of the SPD and CDU/CSU- took power in 2005, Hintze was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. In 2007, he was also appointed Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy. Since January 2006 he has been chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia Land branch of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.

Hintze is married and has one child.