Friedhelm Ost
Friedhelm Ost was born on 15th June 1942 in Castrop-Rauxel. He studied national economics at Freiburg and Cologne Universities (Dipl. rer. pol./certified political economist). After his studies, he was head of the economic department of Commerzbank AG, Düsseldorf and then, in 1969, he became a consultant of Karl Otto Pöhl in the Federal Association of German banks.
A career in the media followed: he was active as business editor, screenplay writer, host and commentator at the television station ZDF (Second German Television). He was head of ZDF business editors from 1973 until 1985. In the following years, he was politically active as State Secretary and head of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. From 1989 until 1990, he served as economic-political consultant of the Federal Chancellor.
From 1990 until 2002, he was a member of the German Bundestag (German Federal Parliament). Between 1990 and 1998, he was head of the Economic Committee. Since 2002, Friedhelm Ost has been running his own political, communication and economic counselling in Bad Honnef and Berlin. He continues being active as a publicist and journalist. In addition to diverse awards, Friedhelm Ost was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.