Jakob von Weizsäcker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| State Minister of Finance of Saarland | |
| 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 55) |
| Political party |  GermanSocial Democratic Party  EUParty of European Socialists |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn |
| Website | jakob |
Jakob von Weizsäcker (born 4 March 1970) is a German economist and politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as State Minister of Finance in thegovernment ofMinister-President of the SaarlandAnke Rehlinger since the2022 state elections.[1]
Weizsäcker previously served as head of the Secretariat of theG20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force on Pandemic Preparedness in 2022 and as the chief economist of theGerman Ministry of Finance under ministerOlaf Scholz from 2019 to 2022. Before, he was aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) fromThuringia,Germany for the8th European Parliament (2014–2019).
After attendingAtlantic College in Wales, Weizsäcker studied atBonn University and worked forAktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste in Poland instead of military service. He completed his university studies in France atENS Lyon and what is today known as theParis School of Economics, graduating with aMaîtrise in physics and aDiplôme d'études approfondies in economics.
Weizsäcker started work as a research fellow with Jean-Charles Hourcade at CIRED in Paris and then withHans-Werner Sinn at theCenter for Economic Studies in Munich. After stints at a venture capital firm and as a visiting scholar at theMIT Department of economics, he joined theGerman Ministry for Economic Affairs in 2001 asprivate secretary to Parliamentary State Secretary Siegmar Mosdorf. From 2002 to 2005, he worked for theWorld Bank in Washington, D.C., andDushanbe. In 2005-2010 he was a resident fellow of the think-tankBruegel in Brussels. With his work on migration policy, he coined the termBlue 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 andMaximilian Steinbeis founded theGlienicker Gruppe, a group of pro-European lawyers, economists and political scientists, together withHenrik Enderlein,Marcel Fratzscher,Clemens Fuest and others.[4]
In the2014 European elections, Weizsäcker was elected to theEuropean Parliament[5] where he was a member of theCommittee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Weizsäcker's legislative files included bank structural reform[6] and too-big-to-fail rules forclearing houses (CCPs).[7] In 2016, the parliament voted in favour of his non-binding report on the regulation ofvirtual currencies such asbitcoin andblockchain.[8]
In addition to his committee assignments, Weizsäcker also was a member of the parliament’s delegation for relations withIndia.[9]
In January 2019, Weizsäcker resigned from the European Parliament upon his nomination as chief economist for theGerman Ministry of Finance.
WhenJens Weidmann announced his resignation as president of theDeutsche Bundesbank in 2021, theFinancial 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 thegovernment ofMinister-President of the SaarlandAnke Rehlinger. As one of his state's representatives at theBundesrat, he has since been serving on the Finance Committee and on the Committee on Cultural Affairs.
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition under the leadership ofFriedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the BavarianCSU) and the SPD following the2025 German elections, von Weizsäcker was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on public finances, led byMathias Middelberg,Florian Oßner andDennis Rohde.[11]
Weizsäcker is married, with four children. A member of the prominentWeizsäcker family, he is the son of environmentalist and politicianErnst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, grandson of the physicist and philosopherCarl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and grandnephew of former German presidentRichard von Weizsäcker.
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