Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig (born 8 October 1941) is a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

. He currently holds the chair for

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct ...

at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

. A member of the Free Democratic Party, he served as Federal Minister of Justice in the

Fifth Kohl cabinet The Fifth Kohl cabinet led by Helmut Kohl was sworn in on 15 November 1994 and laid down its function on 27 October 1998. The cabinet was formed after the 1994 elections. It laid down its function after the formation of the Cabinet Schröder ...

between 1996 and 1998. Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Schmidt-Jortzig was raised in

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. He studied law and received his first

Staatsexamen The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, public ...

in 1966, and the second in 1969. In 1984, he became a professor of public law at the University of Kiel and joined the Free Democratic Party. In the 1994 German federal election, he earned a seat in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German 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 Representatives or the House of Commons ...

, and in 1996, he succeeded

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger ( Leutheusser; born 26 July 1951) is a German politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party and a prominent advocate of human rights in Germany and Europe. Within the FDP, she is a leading figure of the soci ...

as Federal Minister of Justice of Germany.

External links

Biography at the German Bundestag
1941 births Living people Jurists from Berlin Justice ministers of Germany Members of the Bundestag for Schleswig-Holstein Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998 Academic staff of the University of Kiel Academic staff of the University of Münster Politicians from Berlin Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) {{Germany-FDP-politician-stub