Jakob von Weizsäcker

German economist and politician

Jakob von Weizsäcker


State Minister of Finance of Saarland
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 April 2022
Preceded by	Peter Strobel
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1 July 2014 – 6 January 2019
Constituency	Germany

Personal details
Born	(1970-03-04) 4 March 1970 (age 54) Heidelberg, Germany
Political party	German Social Democratic Party EU Party of European Socialists
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Bonn
Website	jakob.weizsaecker.eu

Jakob von Weizsäcker (born 4 March 1970) is a German economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as State Minister of Finance in the government of Minister-President of the Saarland Anke Rehlinger since the 2022 state elections.^[1]

Weizsäcker previously served as head of the Secretariat of the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force on Pandemic Preparedness in 2022 and as the chief economist of the German Ministry of Finance under minister Olaf Scholz from 2019 to 2022. Before, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Thuringia, Germany for the 8th European Parliament (2014–2019).

Education

After attending Atlantic College in Wales, Weizsäcker studied at Bonn University and worked for Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste in Poland instead of military service. He completed his university studies in France at ENS Lyon and what is today known as the Paris School of Economics, graduating with a Maîtrise in physics and a Diplôme d'études approfondies in economics.

Career

Early career

Weizsäcker started work as a research fellow with Jean-Charles Hourcade at CIRED in Paris and then with Hans-Werner Sinn at the Center for Economic Studies in Munich. After stints at a venture capital firm and as a visiting scholar at the MIT Department of economics, he joined the German Ministry for Economic Affairs in 2001 as private secretary to Parliamentary State Secretary Siegmar Mosdorf. From 2002 to 2005, he worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Dushanbe. In 2005-2010 he was a resident fellow of the think-tank Bruegel in Brussels. With his work on migration policy, he coined the term Blue Card for a European scheme to attract high-skilled immigrants.^[2]

From 2010 to 2014, Weizsäcker headed a department at the State Ministry of Economic Affairs in Thuringia.^[3] In 2013, he and Maximilian Steinbeis founded the Glienicker Gruppe, a group of pro-European lawyers, economists and political scientists, together with Henrik Enderlein, Marcel Fratzscher, Clemens Fuest and others.^[4]

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2019

In the 2014 European elections, Weizsäcker was elected to the European Parliament^[5] where he was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Weizsäcker's legislative files included bank structural reform ^[6] and too-big-to-fail rules for clearing houses (CCPs).^[7] In 2016, the parliament voted in favour of his non-binding report on the regulation of virtual currencies such as bitcoin and blockchain.^[8]

In addition to his committee assignments, Weizsäcker also was a member of the parliament’s delegation for relations with India.^[9]

Career in government

In January 2019, Weizsäcker resigned from the European Parliament upon his nomination as chief economist for the German Ministry of Finance.

When Jens Weidmann announced his resignation as president of the Deutsche Bundesbank in 2021, the Financial Times mentioned Weizsäcker as one of the leading contenders to succeed him.^[10]

He served briefly as head of the Secretariat of the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force on Pandemic Preparedness in 2022.

On 25 April 2022 Weizsäcker became State Minister of Finance in the government of Minister-President of the Saarland Anke Rehlinger. As one of his state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he has since been serving on the Finance Committee and on the Committee on Cultural Affairs.

Other activities

Jacques Delors Centre at Hertie School, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2019)^[11]
Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018)^[12]
ECONtribute at Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI), Member of the Scientific and Policy Advisory Board^[13]
Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Member of the Board of Trustees^[14]
Leibniz Institute for Financial Research, Member of the Board of Trustees^[15]
Progressives Zentrum, Member of the Circle of Friends^[16]

Personal life

Weizsäcker is married, with four children. A member of the prominent Weizsäcker family, he is the son of environmentalist and politician Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, grandson of the physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and grandnephew of former German president Richard von Weizsäcker.

References

^ Thomas Gerber (21 April 2022), Kabinett Rehlinger: Altbekanntes mit Glamourfaktor Saarländischer Rundfunk.
^ "Welcome to Europe". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
^ "Jakob von Weizsäcker's CV" (PDF). Retrieved 22 November 2015.
^ Mobil, gerecht, einig Glienicker Brücke.
^ "Der Bundeswahlleiter". Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
^ Jim Brunsden (October 29, 2015), Banks fume at EU move to strengthen break-up powers Financial Times.
^ Fiona Maxwell (January 12, 2017), Jakob von Weizsäcker named co-lead for clearing house failure rules Politico Europe.
^ Huw Jones (April 26, 2016), EU lawmakers to hold off from regulating blockchain for now Reuters.
^ "Jakob von Weizsäcker (information provided by the European Parliament)". Retrieved 31 January 2015.
^ Martin Arnold and Guy Chazan (October 20, 2021), End of an era as Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann steps down Financial Times.
^ Advisory Board Jacques Delors Centre at Hertie School.
^ Bernd Westphal wird neuer Beirats-Vorsitzender beim Wirtschaftsforum der SPD Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , press release of June 7, 2018.
^ Governance ECONtribute at Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI).
^ Board of Trustees Ifo Institute for Economic Research.
^ Board of Trustees Leibniz Institute for Financial Research.
^ Circle of Friends Archived 7 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine Progressives Zentrum.