Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defence of Germany
Christian Schmidt was born in Obernzenn in the district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim on 26 August 1957. He is married to Dr. Ria Schmidt with two children. After graduating from grammar school he served as a conscript in the 1st Mountain Infantry Division. He then studied law in Erlangen and Lausanne. Having completed his education in 1985 with the second state examination in law he worked as a lawyer specializing in labour and competition law.
Between 1984 and 1990 Christian Schmidt was a community and district councillor. In 1990 he was elected to the Federal German Parliament. There he served as spokesman of the CSU parliamentary group for foreign and security policy and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. From 1994 he was a deputy member of the Defence Committee. From 1999 he was a member of the Coordination Council of the German-Czech Consultation Forum and chairman of the German-British group of parliamentarians. From October 2002 Schmidt was the defence policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and served as a member of the Defence Committee and as deputy member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Since 23 November 2005 the defence expert Christian Schmidt has been Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defence.