Edmund Stoiber

Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber, German pronunciation: ˈɛtmʊnt ˈʃtɔʏbɐ, (born 28 September 1941) is a German politician. He used to be the Minister-President of the state of Bavaria and the leader of the Christian Social Union party (CSU). On 18 January 2007, he said he no longer wanted to be minister-president and party leader by 30 September, after having been  by his own party for weeks.

Early life
Edmund Stoiber was born in Oberaudorf in the district of Rosenheim, Bavaria.  Before he became a member of the Bavarian parliament in 1974, he was a lawyer and worked at the University of Regensburg.  

Stoiber is married to Karin Stoiber. They have three children: Konstanze (1971), Veronika (1977), Dominik (1980) and three grandchildren: Johannes (1999), Benedikt (2001) and Theresa Marie (2005).

Education and profession
Stoiber was a student at Ignaz-Günther-Gymnasium in Rosenheim, where he received his Abitur (high school diploma) in 1961. He served the military with the mountain infantry division but had to leave because he hurt his knee. After his military service, Stoiber studied political science and later law in Munich. In 1967 he passed the state law exam and then worked at the University of Regensburg in criminal law and Eastern European law. He became a doctor of jurisprudence, and then in 1971 passed the second state examination.

Political career

In 1978 Stoiber was elected secretary general of the CSU, which he stayed until 1982/83. From 1982 to 1986 he was a representative to the Bavarian secretary of the state and then a minister of state from 1982 to 1988. From 1988 to 1993 he was the Bavarian Minister of the Interior and in May 1993, the Bavarian Landtag (parliament) elected him as minister-president.  As such he served as President of the Bundesrat in 1995/96.  In 1998, he was made leader of the CSU.

Running for Chancellor 

In 2002, Stoiber removed the leader of the CDU, Angela Merkel, and was made the joint CDU/CSU's candidate for the office of chancellor, with Gerhard Schröder (SPD) as opponent.

Before the 2002 election, the CSU/CDU was on top of the opinion polls and Stoiber said that "...this election is like a football match where it's the second half and my team is ahead by 2-0", a quote that has become famous. However, on election day things had changed. The SPD had a huge comeback and the CDU/CSU got  less votes. Both the SPD and CDU/CSU had 38.5% of the vote, but the SPD was ahead by 6,000 votes. Gerhard Schröder was elected again as chancellor by the parliament. He joined together with the Green party. Many people think it was Stoiber's reaction to the floods in eastern Germany, shortly before the election, that made his party lose the vote. Also, Schröder made clear that he was against the Iraq war led by the United States. He made the war the main topic in his campaign, which was seen by many people as the changing factor in the weeks before the election.

Outside politics
Stoiber is a great football fan and he supports the FC Bayern Munich. Before the 2002 election FC Bayern's manager Uli Hoeneß said he supported Stoiber and the CSU. Football legend, FC Bayern President and Vice-President of the German Football Association, Franz Beckenbauer, on the other hand, showed his support for Stoiber by letting him join the German national football team on their flight home from Japan after the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

References

Other websites

Official website (German)
Stoiber quotes (in German)  (critic)
Stoiber and the East - Deutsche Welle
Parlazzo Media Awards - Nomination 2007 - 10 Minutes - 10 Minuten (in German) 

1941 births
Living people
Ministers-President of Bavaria
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Politicians from Bavaria
Politicians of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria