Overview
- The CDU in Hesse confirmed Tuesday that Christian Schwarz-Schilling, 95, died Monday in his hometown of Büdingen.
- He led the Post and Telecommunications ministry from 1982 to 1992 under Helmut Kohl and drove the rollout of cable TV, the start of private broadcasters, and the breakup of the old state Post that later enabled privatization.
- His tenure is also tied to Germany’s adoption of GSM, an early digital mobile phone standard that became the baseline across Europe.
- He left the cabinet in 1992 in protest at Berlin’s stance on the Bosnian war, then turned to mediation and served in 2006–2007 as High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- CDU Hessen hailed him as a “great democrat” who modernized the country, and obituaries note his long service in Hesse’s state politics and in the Bundestag from 1976 to 2002.