MJK62467 Michel Friedman (Frankfurter Buchmesse 2018)

Julien Michel Friedman (; born 25 February 1956 in Paris) is a German author, former CDU politician and talk show host. From 2000 to 2003 Friedman was vice president of the

Central Council of Jews in Germany The Central Council of Jews in Germany (German name: Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) is a federation of German Jews. It was founded on 19 July 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish communi ...

, and president of the

European Jewish Congress The European Jewish Congress, (EJC), was founded in 1986. It is based in Brussels, with offices in Paris, Strasbourg, Berlin and Budapest. It is a representative body of democratically elected European Jewish communities throughout Europe. Overv ...

from 2001 to 2003. From 1998 to 2003 he had his own show on German television. Since 2004 he has been hosting a weekly talk show on N24 called ''Studio Friedman''. Friedman is a lawyer by profession and studied law and philosophy.

Early life and education

Friedman was born to a

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

family. His parents and his grandmother were ''

Schindlerjuden The ', literally translated from German as "Schindler Jews", were a group of roughly 1,200 Jews saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. They survived the years of the Nazi regime primarily through the intervention of Schindler, who afforde ...

'', i.e.

Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler (; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist, humanitarian and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and amm ...

had recruited them for slave labor, thereby rescuing them from a concentration camp. They had been in the most infamous of all camps, the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, his family opened a fur shop in Paris. In 1965, the family returned to Germany and settled in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Friedman began studying medicine, but then switched to law. He graduated from law school in 1988 and became a doctor of law in 1994. He has a brother living in Israel.

Career

After qualifying as a lawyer in 1988, Friedman became a partner in an international law firm specializing in financial and media matters. Today, he is a professor of real estate and media law. From 2000 until 2003, Friedman served as President of the

(EJC). Friedman's career in TV began with a talk show called ''Caution! Friedman'' on the public broadcaster ''

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting, public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ...

'' in 1998. Since 2004, he has been presenting "Studio Friedman" on Germany's '' Welt'' channel. His talk show ''Auf ein Wort'' premiered on ''

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

'' in 2017.

Other activities

* Wall GmbH, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2003) *

Atlantik-Brücke Atlantik-Brücke (, ''Atlantic Bridge'') is a leading private non-profit association to promote German-American understanding and Atlanticism. Founded in Hamburg in 1952, it was located in Bonn between 1983 and 1999 and is now located in Berli ...

, Member *

Federal Academy for Security Policy The Federal Academy for Security Policy (german: Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, BAKS) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy Security policy is ...

(BAKS), Member of the Advisory Board *

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, Member of the Broadcasting Council (1990–2003)

Recognition

* 2001 –

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* 2001 – German Television Award

Controversy

In 2003, Friedman was convicted in a case involving prostitution and drug usage. Friedman had been accused of offering

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

prostitutes he had ordered through an escort service that was being investigated for forced prostitution. Friedman's crime was discovered almost by chance, when police wiretaps for the investigation into forced prostitution led them to the name "Paolo Pinkel", which turned out to be Friedman's alias when using the service. However several Jewish leaders claimed Friedman's arrest was part of an anti-Semitic witch-hunt. Investigators raided his home and found small quantities of cocaine. He was fined €17,400 for possession of cocaine, on 8 July 2003. The settlement enabled him to avoid a trial. After publicly admitting to the drug possession Friedman stated "I have made a mistake. Drugs are no help. I am resigning from all public offices that I hold." As well as resigning from the Central Council of Jews Friedman also resigned from the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. However, since he did not apologise to the forced prostitutes themselves (keeping silent about the nature of his "mistake"), the German women's rights organisation

Terre des Femmes Terre des Femmes (French, translation: Women's Earth) is a German non-profit-organisation committed to human rights for girls and women. The vision of the organisation is a world in which all people are equal, independent and free, irrespective of ...

and others strongly criticised Friedman's speech. When Friedman interviewed Youth and Sports Minister

Akif Çağatay Kılıç Akif Çağatay Kılıç (born 15 June 1976) is a Turkish educator, politician, an MP for Samsun Province of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the former Minister of Youth and Sports of Turkey. In September 2016, Kılıç w ...

in 2016 about the Turkish coup d'état attempt, mass layoffs and arrests that followed the failed putsch, and the media situation and the position of women in Turkey, the Turkish government confiscated the recordings. In response, ''Deutsche Welle'' Director-General

Peter Limbourg Peter Limbourg (born 7 July 1960) is a German broadcast journalist and the Director General of ''Deutsche Welle''. Career Alongside Peter Kloeppel, Limbourg moderated the first of two TV election debates between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and ...

condemned Turkey the seizure of the video tape as "a blatant violation of press freedom."Erik Kirschbaum (6 September 2016)
Turkish government seizes interview tape from broadcaster Deutsche Welle
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

Personal life

Since July 2004 Friedmann has been married to

Bärbel Schäfer Bärbel Schäfer (born 16 December 1963 in Bremen) is a German television presenter and talk show host. Life Schäfer works in Germany as television presenter and talk show host. In 2004 Schäfer married Michel Friedman in Eschborn, only short ...

, a former German TV celebrity. They got married at

Park East Synagogue Park East Synagogue is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. Building The building was built in 1889–1890. The architects were Schneider and Herter, who designed numerous tenements on New York's Lower East Side as ...

. The couple has two sons, Samuel (*2005) and Oscar (*2008 – named after Oskar Schindler).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Michel 1956 births Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians 20th-century German Jews Jewish German politicians 20th-century German lawyers German television talk show hosts German broadcast news analysts German newspaper journalists German television journalists Living people Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany ZDF people Die Welt people Hessischer Rundfunk people Jurists from Hesse