Edited sentence: After his retirement from the state government in 2002, he was co-owner of the law firm of Tank, Feber and Birkmann in Karlsruhe.Birkmann is a member of the city council of Gernsbach, and is Deputy Chairman of the CDU and member of the Board of the urban community of the CDU in Gernsbach.Birkmann obtained a doctorate in 1967 in Cologne and served as a judge at the Federal Court in Karlsruhe and in 1991 joined the State Chancellery of the Free State of Thuringia.Birkmann was the 1999 Minister of Justice of the Free State of Thuringia.From 1995 he was State Secretary in the Thuringian Ministry of Finance.He chaired the board from 1995 to 2003.He is a member of the Multiple Sclerosis Society (DMSG) in the State of Thuringia.Since 1 January 2008, he has been in the partner company Spilker & Coll