Michael Glos (born 14 December 1944) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who served as Minister for Economics and Technology in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

from 22 November 2005 until 10 February 2009.

Early life and career

After the secondary school level, Glos made an apprenticeship as

miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalent ...

and became master in 1967. Starting 1968, he managed his parents' flour mill in Prichsenstadt.

Political career

Career in local politics

Glos joined the

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

in 1970. In 1972, he was the first chairman of the CSU-chapter of his hometown Prichsenstadt. From 1975 to 1993, he was chairman of the CSU chapter of

Kitzingen Kitzingen () is a town in the German state of Bavaria, capital of the district Kitzingen. It is part of the Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants. Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County is the largest wine producer ...

. From 1976 he was part of the executive board of the CSU in

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...

. From then he was also part of the CSU leadership. From 1972 to 1978, Glos was member of the district council of Prichsenstadt and, from 1975 to 1993, member of the council of the district (''Kreistag'') of

Career in national politics

Glos first became a member of 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 Comm ...

in the 1976 elections, representing the

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban ag ...

district. From 1993 to 2005 he was chairman of the CSU parliamentary group and deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Following the 2005 elections, Glos was appointed as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Technology at short notice when CSU leader

Edmund Stoiber Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber (born 28 September 1941) is a German politician who served as the 16th Minister President of the state of Bavaria between 1993 and 2007 and chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) between 1999 and 2007. In 2002, he ...

rejected it. Merkel had reportedly wanted to appoint him as Federal Minister of Defence. During his time in government, Glos was widely considered one of the weakest members of Chancellor Merkel's cabinet and had often seemed to struggle with his portfolio. Among other projects, he led efforts on a 2008 law that allows the government to block moves by foreign investors to take large stakes in German companies, if it concludes that they endanger the country's interests. On 7 February 2009, Glos offered his resignation as minister, which was first denied by

Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister of the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the 18 ...

, but later accepted. He justified his resignation with his age and the need for renewal in the CSU after Seehofer's election as CSU chairman.

Other activities

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national d ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (2006–2009)2009 Annual Report

Personal life

Glos is married and father of two children. His third child died in a car accident near

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

in 1997.

References

External links