Horst Metz

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Horst Metz
Born(1945-07-06)6 July 1945
Groß Laasch, Mecklenburg, Allied-occupied Germany
Died15 October 2022(2022-10-15) (aged 77)
Dresden, Saxony, Germany
OccupationPolitician
Political partyCDU
ChildrenGeorg Metz

Horst Metz (6 July 1945 – 15 October 2022) was a German politician.[1]

In 2002 he was appointed Finance Minister in the Saxony regional government.[2] His resignation from ministerial office came unexpectedly in 2007, following a crisis involving a regional bank that had needed a bailout because of large-scale poorly timed investments in the US housing market.[3]

Life

Early years

Metz was born in a small village in northern central Germany some 35 km (20 miles) south of

Dresden University of Technology. He then undertook further research, obtaining his doctorate in 1972.[1][4]

Professional career

In 1972, Metz moved south and worked until 1987 as a researcher with the

District Administration as Head of the Environmental Protection Department.[1]

Politics

During the eleven months between

regional legislature.[2][6] He would retain his seat till 2009.[1]

In October 1999, he became deputy leader of the CDU group in the

Minister-President from Kurt Biedenkopf. Milbradt had previously served in the Biedenkopf cabinet as regional finance minister, and that was the position which he now passed to Metz. In the 2004 regional election the CDU lost their overall majority for the first time since reunification and Milbradt found himself obliged to govern in coalition with a moderate left-wing party. Metz nevertheless retained his Finance portfolio.[2]

Ministerial resignation triggered by a bank crisis

The Saxony Regional State Bank (Landesbank Sachsen) was founded in 1992 following reunification. It was broadly based on equivalent existing institutions in what had before 1990 been known as West Germany. The bank was in part publicly owned, since the Free State of Saxony owned 37% of it.[7] Prominently associated with the Saxony bank's creation was the regional politician Georg Milbradt, who by 2002 had taken over in Saxony as the head of the regional government.[7]

As the regional

water sports habit.[7] This was not the only example of executive profligacy that would attract criticism from auditors and from the press in reports produced after the bank met its nemesis, although Metz himself seems to have been an advocate for restraint in such matters.[7]

Like many bankers around the world during the early years of the twenty-first century, senior officers at the

duly crashed the Saxony Regional Bank faced bankruptcy.[7] It fell to the regional government to sort out the mess. The Saxony Regional Bank was taken over early during 2008 by the Baden-Württemberg Regional State Bank (Landesbank Baden-Württemberg) as part of a large and complex deal which also involved the taxpayers of Saxony, represented by their regional government, providing a guarantee worth 2.75 Billion Euros.[7]

The close links between the bank and the regional government, along with his own position on the bank's supervisory board, meant that Horst Metz's resignation as regional finance minister,[2] on 30 September 2007,[8] was widely reported in Germany as honorable, but nevertheless appropriate.[8] Following his resignation as Finance Minister, however, Horst Metz would continue to defend the decisions he had taken to save the bank, and the way in which it was done.[8]

After 19 years in the Landtag, as criticisms continued to surface in the aftermath of the bank collapse,[7] he did not contest his seat again in the 2009 state election.

Personal life and death

Metz died on 15 October 2022, at age 77.[9]

References

  1. ^
    WirtschaftsWoche, Düsseldorf
    . Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e Helmut Müller-Enbergs. "Metz, Horst *6.7.1945 Minister der Finanzen des Freistaats Sachsen" (in German). Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  3. ^ Steffen Winter (3 September 2007). "Regent ohne Kugelfang: Der Rücktritt seines Finanzministers verschafft Ministerpräsident Milbradt nur kurz Luft. Die Landespartei denkt über Alternativen nach – eine ist Kanzleramtsminister Thomas de Maizière". Der Spiegel (online). Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek". Beitrag zur Methodik der modellgerechten Wasserbedarfsermittlung in Flussgebieten / Feichtinger, Gundela [u.] Metz, Horst. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Leipzig u. Frankfurt a.M. 1972. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Horst Metz: deutscher Politiker (Sachsen); Staatsminister der Finanzen (2002–2007); CDU; Dr.-Ing". Munzinger-Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9783525369005
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Chronik der Sachsen-LB-Krise". Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Leipzig. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d "[3 Jähre n]ach dem Notverkauf der Landesbank Sachsen: Sachsens Finanzminister kündigt Rücktritt an Horst Metz zieht Konsequenzen aus der Krise der Sachsen LB und reicht seinen Rücktritt zum 30. September ein. Den Verkauf der Bank verteidigt er aber weiterhin. Wenige Tage nach dem Notverkauf der SachsenLB hat Sachsens Finanzminister Horst Metz seinen Rücktritt erklärt". The reference is to justifications originally provided when Horst Metz was aged 62, in 2007. The date shown here is the date on which it was republished in the context of Metz' subsequent retirement from active politics three years later. 17 May 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Ehemaliger sächsischer Finanzminister Horst Metz verstorben". Freie Presse. 18 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
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