Georg Fahrenschon

German politician

Georg Fahrenschon


Bavarian Minister of Finance
In office 2008–2011
Preceded by	Erwin Huber
Succeeded by	Markus Söder
Member of the Bundestag
In office 2002–2007
Preceded by	Martin Mayer
Succeeded by	Florian Hahn

Personal details
Born	(1968-02-08) 8 February 1968 (age 56) Munich, West Germany
Political party	Christian Social Union of Bavaria
Alma mater	University of Augsburg
Profession	Economist
Website	georg-fahrenschon.de

Georg Fahrenschon (born 8 February 1968) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU). From 2008 to 2011, he served as finance minister in the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance. He was a member of the Bundestag of Germany until 2007.^[1]

Early life and education

Fahrenschon graduated with a diplom in economics from the University of Augsburg in 1999.

Career

Member of the German Bundestag, 2002-2007

Following the 2002 federal elections, Fahrenschon became a Member of the German Bundestag, where he served on the Finance Committee. Within the Finance Committee, he was the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s rapporteur on Germany's Transparency Directive Implementation Act (Transparenzrichtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetz, TUG), among others.

State Minister of Finance, 2008-2011

Following the Bavarian state elections in 2008, Fahrenschon was made State Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Minister-President Horst Seehofer. During his time in office, he led the talks with his Austrian counterpart Josef Proell in 2009 about Austria nationalizing Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International, a local unit of BayernLB, after heavy losses tied to loans in Southeast and Eastern Europe had driven the overextended lender to the brink of collapse.^[2]^[3]

In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections, Fahrenschon was a member of the working group on taxes, national budget and financial policy, led by Thomas de Maizière and Hermann Otto Solms.

In 2011, Fahrenschon presented a proposal envisaging tax cuts of 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) for lower- and middle incomes by 2013, the year of the subsequent federal election; this move put him in conflict with federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who wanted to delay tax cuts to cut Germany’s budget deficit.^[4]

President of the German Savings Banks Association, 2012-2017

In October 2011, it became known that both Fahrenschon and Steffen Kampeter, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Finance Ministry would be seeking the presidency of the DSGV after incumbent Heinrich Haasis stepped down.^[5]

In 2012, Fahrenschon led Germany’s savings banks in helping quash a proposal for Europe-wide deposit guarantees.^[6] He later sought to limit the remaining aspects of a European banking union, namely a joint resolution fund and central supervision of all the region’s lenders.^[7] Eventually, it was agreed that day-to-day supervision of all but one of the 417 Sparkassen – the largest, the Hamburger Sparkasse is the exception – would remain in German hands.^[8]

In November 2017, shortly before Fahrenschon was scheduled to stand for re-election for another six-year term,^[9] prosecutors in Munich charged Fahrenschon with tax evasion; he admitted to having filed his tax statements for 2012, 2013 and 2014 too late but denied the allegation and declined to pay a fine.^[10] Following internal and public pressure, he resigned from his post.^[11]

Personal life

Fahrenschon is married and has two daughters.

Other activities

Regulatory bodies

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Member of the Administrative Council (2012-2017)

Financial institutions

European Savings Banks Group (ESBG), Member of the Board (2012-2017)
Federal Association of Public Banks in Germany (VÖB), Member of the Board
KfW, Member of the Supervisory Board, of the Remuneration Committee and of the Audit Committee
DekaBank, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee
Helaba, Member of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Public Owners
Berlin Hyp, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Landesbank Berlin Holding (LBB), Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, Member of the Supervisory Board
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), Member of the Advisory Board
BayernLB, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (2008-2011)
SaarLB, Member of the Supervisory Board (2007-2008)

State-owned companies

Flughafen München GmbH, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (2008-2011)
Messe München GmbH, Member of the Supervisory Board

Scientific institutions

Medical Center of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Member of the Supervisory Board
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Member of the Board of Trustees
Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Member of the Board of Trustees
Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Member of the Board of Trustees
Munich School of Philosophy, Member of the Board of Trustees
Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Member of the Board of Trustees

Others

Cultural Foundation of the Federal States, Member of the Board of Trustees^[12]
Deutsche Sporthilfe, Member of the Foundation’s Council
Deutsches Museum, Member of the Supervisory Board
Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation, SBFIC), Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2012-2017)
Hochschule der Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe - University of Applied Sciences, Chairman of the Advisory Board (2012-2017)
Goethe-Institut, Member of the Business and Industry Advisory Board
Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft, Member of the Board of Directors
Market Economy Foundation (Stiftung Marktwirtschaft), Member of the Political Advisory Board
Forum Kapitalmarktinstrumente – Kapitalmarktfinanzierung, Member of the Advisory Board
Ludwig Erhard Foundation, Member
Munich Finance Forum, Member
Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, Member of the Board of Trustees
Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2012-2017)
Graf von Montgelas-Stiftung, Member of the Board of Trustees
Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Member

References

^ "Bundestag". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
^ David Jolly (15 December 2009), Austria Nationalizes Overextended Lender New York Times.
^ Boris Groendahl (19 December 2014), Austria Sues BayernLB for Hiding Hypo-Alpe’s True Plight Bloomberg Business.
^ Brian Parkin (7 January 2011), Merkel’s CSU Ally Seeks EU5 Billion of Tax Cuts, Die Welt Says Bloomberg Business.
^ Niklas Magnusson (19 October 2011), Fahrenschon, Kampeter Seek DSGV Presidency, Stuttgarter Reports Bloomberg Business.
^ Annette Weisbach (29 June 2012), German Banks Pleased Summit Didn’t Result in Deposit Guaranteee Bloomberg Business.
^ Annette Weisbach (13 November 2012), German Banker Gains Support for Narrower Banking Union Bloomberg Business.
^ Gabriele Steinhauser and Laura Stevens (10 November 2013), German Savings Banks Flex Political Muscle Wall Street Journal.
^ Tom Sims, Andreas Framke and Hans Seidenstuecker (7 November 2017), Munich prosecutor investigates banker on suspicion of tax evasion Reuters.
^ Olaf Storbeck (7 November 2017), Influential German banker Fahrenschon faces tax evasion charges Financial Times.
^ Tom Sims (17 November 2017), German savings bank association chief resigns over tax returns Reuters.
^ Board of Trustees Cultural Foundation of the Federal States.