Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig
Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig is a German jurist. He currently holds the chair for public law at the University of Kiel. A member of the Free Democratic Party, he served as German Federal Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Kohl V between 1996 and 1998.
Born in Berlin, Schmidt-Jortzig was raised in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony. He studied law and received his first Staatsexamen in 1966, and the second in 1969. In 1984 he became professor of public law at the University of Kiel and also joined the Free Democratic Party.
In the 1994 German federal election he earned a seat in the Bundestag, and in 1996 he succeeded Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger as Federal Minister of Justice of Germany.
