Christian Schwarz-Schilling (born 19 November 1930) is an Austrian-born German politician, entrepreneur, philanthropist and media and telecommunications innovator who served as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2007.

He continued to study History and East Asian Languages and Culture at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

He told the Chancellor he was "ashamed" to belong to such a government, saying he had entered politics in the first place to ensure that atrocities like those perpetrated by the Nazis "never happen again."

[4] As Yugoslavia lurched into chaos, Schwarz-Schilling began to try to mediate between the factions — a role later formalised in the Washington agreement of 1994, and which he held until 2004.

Schwarz-Schilling sold his shares in Sonnenschein KG to the Nixdorf Group only a few hours before his appointment as Post Minister.

His decision to use copper led to incredulity both at home and abroad, as it was already foreseen in the early 1980s that fiber-optic cables were the "technology of the future.

[8][4] He has cast his role as that of "advisor" to the country who wants to "listen to the people"[9] — in contrast to his predecessor Ashdown, who attracted criticism particularly from Bosnian Serbs for relying too heavily on his Bonn-powers to force through legislation and sack elected officials.

The EU decision to shut down the OHR by June 2007 unexpectedly arose disappointment and concern in the Bosnian population, NGOs, and politicians.

[11] Schwarz-Schilling was unpopular in the OHR in part due to his penchant for dozing off during meetings (leading to a nickname "Schwartz-Schlaffing" in German and "Kamin Spavac" in local language) and his efforts to link German business interests to various projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including facilitating access by his own telecommunications consulting company to the Bosnian Serb entity.

The German government did not support an extension of his initial one year term in January 2007, making him the shortest tenured High Representative.

Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajčák replaced Christian Schwarz-Schilling - who was originally intended to be the last holder of the post - on 30 June 2007.