Peter Schmidhuber (15 December 1931 – 26 December 2020) was a German and European politician from the Bavarian CSU party.

Biography

Schmidhuber was born in

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 Ha ...

, Bavaria. He studied law and economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1951, gaining his license to practice as a lawyer in 1960. Schmidhuber worked from 1961 to 1966 in the Bavarian State Finance Department, then as a legal adviser from 1961 to 1978. He joined the Christian Social Union in 1952. He was from 1960 to 1966 a member of the

City Council, and from 1965 to 1969 and again from 1972 to 1978 a member of the German

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 Common ...

(the lower chamber of the national parliament). On 15 October 1978 he was elected to the Bavarian state parliament, and he remained there until 1987. From 1978 to 1987 he was in the private office of Franz-Josef Strauss while the latter was regional Minister for Federal and European questions. He was also a member, at different times, of the coordination committee between the two chambers of the federal German parliament, and of the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

. Between 1987 and 1995 Schmidhuber was a member of the three

Delors Commission The Delors Commission was the administration of Jacques Delors, the eighth President of the European Commission. Delors presided over the European Commission for three terms (though the last one lasted for around a year). The first term lasted ...

s in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, where he replaced Alois Pfeiffer, also from Bavaria. Schmidhuber's portfolios in the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

included Economic Affairs and Employment (from 22 September 1987 to the end of 1989); the budget (1989 to 1992); and budget, financial control and the Cohesion Fund (from 1993 to 1994). After his retirement from the commission in 1995 Schmidhuber became a member of the Court of Directors of the

Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (), literally "German Federal Bank", is the central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Due to its strength and former size, the Bundesbank is the mos ...

(the German national bank). He worked subsequently for companies specializing in economic and company law.

Decorations

Schmidhuber was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (the Federal Cross of Merit) in 1982, and promoted in the order in 1986 (Great Cross of Merit with Star) and 1990 (Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder band). He has also received various other regional and trade-related honours.

Personal

Schmidhuber had one daughter (Susanne). His wife predeceased him. His interests were history and philosophy, chess and art.

Publications

A list of Schmidhuber's publications (in German) can be found on this weblink to the German national library http://dispatch.opac.d-nb.de/DB=4.1/REL?PPN=122929446 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidhuber, Peter 1931 births 2020 deaths Christian Social Union in Bavaria politicians Ministers of the Bavaria State Government Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Politicians from Munich Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni European Commissioners 1985–1988