Birgit Breuel (née Münchmeyer; born 7 September 1937 in Hamburg-Rissen) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as president of the Treuhand Agency and as Commissioner General of Expo 2000 in Hannover. She later worked in several honorary positions.

Early life and education

Birgit Münchmeyer came from a Lower Saxony family of traders and private bankers. She is the daughter of merchant bankers who owned the bank Münchmeyer & Co.. On 8 August 1959 she married the Hamburg merchant Ernst-Jürgen Breuel (born 7 October 1931 in Hamburg). Breuel studied political science at the Universities of Hamburg, Oxford and Geneva.

Political career

Career in state politics

In 1966, Breuel entered into the CDU. From 1978 to 1986 she was State Minister of Economy and Transport in Lower Saxony, then to 1990 was the State Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Minister-President Ernst Albrecht. She also served on the boards of various German corporations, including Volkswagen.

Treuhandanstalt

In 1990, Breuel was elected to the executive board of the Treuhand - a holding firm responsible for the sale of East German state assets. A year later she became the successor of Detlev Karsten Rohwedder. While Rohwedder had been cautious about the sale of most state assets, favouring a worker-owned solution if possible, Breuel favoured quick privatization. She departed in 1995 from this office.

Expo 2000

Breuel then became Commissioner-General of the World Expo Expo 2000 in Hanover.

Literature