Laurenz Meyer

After his Abitur (school-leaving) examinations in 1968, he completed a course of study in economics at the University of Münster, leaving in 1975 as a qualified economist.

In 1994, he campaigned for the office of Lord Mayor, but lost to Jürgen Wieland, the candidate of the SPD (Social Democratic Party).

He entered parliament by being on the CDU's party list for North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany's proportional representation electoral system.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on 19 December that CDU boss Angela Merkel had stripped her General Secretary of his powers.

[1] The reason for his resignation was that contrary to his description, the special payment was not a severance pay since Meyer returned to the company only after the CDU defeat at the North Rhine-Westphalian election in May 2000.

The received payments admitted by him and the announcement of a donation to SOS-Kinderdörfer were especially unable to pacify the party's branches in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, which were involved with their area's election campaigns.

In a statement on 17 December, Meyer had described this payment as "legally correct", but also admitted "...I have nevertheless become aware of the fact that many people have a problem understanding that at that time I accepted this money, since I went back into the company...".