Karl Otto Pöhl

Karl Otto Pohl ( born December 1, 1929 in Hannover ) is a German banker and secretary of state, who was President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 1980 to 1991.

Education and work

Karl Otto Pohl studied Economics at the Georg -August- University of Göttingen and in 1957 started his career at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. After working as a business journalist from 1961 to 1967 and the Association of German banks from 1968 to 1969, he joined the civil service in 1970 and was among the Federal Ministers of Finance Helmut Schmidt and Hans Apel 1972-1977 Secretary of State. He then joined as Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank. In 1980 he became the successor of Otmar Emminger Bundesbank president. In 1991 he resigned for personal reasons from this office. As a real reason, however, the differences with Helmut Kohl regarding the procedure for the economic unification and in particular the determination of the exchange rate to the introduction of the D - Mark are often suspected in the GDR. His successor as president of the Bundesbank was his long-time deputy Helmut Schlesinger. In 1992 he moved as General Partner for Cologne-based private bank Sal Oppenheim from 1993 to 1998 he was speaker of the Shareholders' Committee.

Pohl was a member of the SPD since 1948. In 2006, Pohl said in an interview with Business Week that he had been a year earlier resigned from the SPD. The reason he said that the party was oriented in recent decades, especially in economic policy too much to the left. In particular, he distanced himself from the positions Andrea Nahles ' and Kurt Beck.

Other activities, honors and awards

Karl Otto Pohl is the owner of the following Order:

He is also the owner of six honorary doctorates, including one at the Ruhr- University Bochum, at the University of Frankfurt am Main and at the University of London. He is involved in the Board of Trustees of the European Youth Parliament in Germany eV

Family and Private

Karl Otto Pohl married in 1974 in Cologne originating Ulrike Pesch. He now lives in Zurich.