The Berlin International Economics Congress

An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Roles of Global Politics & Civil Society in International Economics

(Berlin; February 4th - 7th, 2010)

Professor Dr. Helmut Haussmann

Former Minister of Economics of Germany, Professor of Business Management

Professor Dr. Helmut Haussmann has been a member of the Bundestag since 1976 and is a member of the Free Democratic Party (F.D.P.) In 1979 he decided to enter politics full time and as a consequence left his management position at his family’s timber and furniture business in Wurrtemburg-Baden. He worked as the party’s Secretary-General from 1984-1988. Dr. Haussmann has gained considerable experience with his time in the Bundestag acting on several committees from foreign affairs to economics to security policy.

During Dr. Haussmann’s time as his party’s Secretary-General he developed a reputation for being a champion of free markets. During that time he worked towards loosing government restrictions on the West German economy and in particular those on medium sized businesses. He supported changes in tax laws which would have placed a lesser burden on entrepreneurs and employers. Dr. Haussmann’s ideas were popular enough so that in 1988 he was sworn in as West Germany’s Economics Minister.

Dr. Haussmann earned his doctorate from Erlangen-Nuremberg University in Business Management. He stays active in the field of international management by lecturing at Erlangen-Nuremberg University, where he holds an honorary professorship in management, since 1978.