Prof. Dres. h. c. Manfred Lahnstein

Manfred Lahnstein is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the ZEIT Foundation. He runs his own consultancy company Lahnstein & Partner International Consultants and is member of several supervisory and advisory boards. Lahnstein started his federal political career in 1977 as State Secretary in Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance. Between 1980 and 1982 he served as the Head of the Chancellor’s Office. Subsequently, in 1982, Lahnstein became Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

In 1983 he joined the Executive Board of Bertelsmann AG. From 1994 to 1998, Lahnstein was member of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann AG. From 1993 to 2006 Lahnstein was President of the German-Israeli Association and from 1993 until 2005 member of the Trilateral Commission.

Lahnstein has been a professor of cultural management for 25 years and is author of six books and numerous articles and essays. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Hamburg and Haifa. He is an honorary Chairman of the Board of Governors of Haifa University.

He is married and has two children and five grandchildren.