[7] He has explained that his name means Saracen (i.e. Muslim) and is common in Southern France: "It is derived from the Arab pirates that were called 'Saracens' in the Middle Ages".

From October 1981 he served as bureau chief and was a close collaborator of Federal Finance Minister Hans Matthöfer and his successor Manfred Lahnstein.

Even after the end of the socialist-liberal coalition in October 1982, Sarrazin remained in the Finance Ministry, where he was director of several units, including (from 1989 to 1990) the "Innerdeutsche Beziehungen," which prepared the German monetary, economic and social union.

During his first four months he served as head of internal auditing; from 1 September 2000 he was on the board of DB Netz, responsible for planning and investment.

Sarrazin is considered a key developer of the people's share model of the German railway, which provides for the issue of non-voting preferred stock to limit the influence of private investors.

Sarrazin called pension increases "completely senseless action", but instead recommended that the government prepare older citizens for a "long term decline to the level of subsistence.

The investigating prosecutor filed an informal appeal against Sarrazin, but in December 2004 the Berlin district court rejected a trial because the prosecution was seen as ineffective.

[22] The SPD opened a third proceeding in order to revoke Sarrazin's membership after he published his book Hostile Takeover: How Islam Impedes Progress and Threatens Society.

[24] His apparent characteristic smirk is due to an operation he had in 2004 to remove a tumour on an inner ear nerve, resulting in an impairment of the right side of his face.

[25] Sarrazin advocates a restrictive immigration policy with the exception of the highly skilled and the reduction of state welfare benefits.

In September 2009, his views on economic and immigration policy in Berlin were published in Lettre International, a German cultural quarterly, and caused severe reactions.

"[31] In 2010, Sarrazin's book came under criticism for claiming that Germany's immigrant Muslim population is reluctant to integrate and tends to rely more on social services than to be productive.

"[35][36] He subsequently offered his regrets for the irritation caused,[28] and explained his source, for instance, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,[37] referring to international media reports,[38] on a 2010 study by Gil Atzmon et al. that appeared in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

[39] In 2018, Sarrazin's statements were criticized by the chairman of the Interior Committee of the German Bundestag, Sebastian Edathy (SPD), the United Services trade union and the political scientist Gerd Wiegel.

[42] A Berliner Morgenpost poll suggested that almost half of the German population agree with Sarrazin's political views and 18 percent would vote for his party if he started one.

[43] In a survey conducted for the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper among 10,000 Sarrazin readers, an overwhelming majority was shown to be male, middle-class, middle-aged to elderly, conservatives.

[44] The German-Turkish sociologist and best-selling author Necla Kelek, who has defended Sarrazin, introduced him at a Berlin press conference in August 2010 attended by roughly 300 journalists.

[45] The publication of his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" provoked accusations that Sarrazin was stoking racism and xenophobia.