Photo: Martin Kraft / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Franz Josef Jung interests me as a study in how a legal mind moves into high politics. A trained lawyer, jurist and notary from Erbach, he rose through the Christian Democratic Union to become Germany's Federal Minister of Defence under Angela Merkel. That leap, from parsing statutes to steering national security, demands two very different kinds of nerve. His brief stint as Labour Minister ended in resignation, but I read that as a certain accountability rather than failure. Decorated with the Hessian Order of Merit and the Federal Cross of Merit, he comes across as the steady, methodical type who personifies a certain German seriousness in public service.
Overview
Franz Josef Jung (born 5 March 1949) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He became Federal Minister of Defence in the Grand coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel on 22 November 2005. In October 2009 he became Minister of Labour and Social Affairs but resigned a month later.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Franz Josef Jung
- Name (Japanese)
- フランツ・ヨーゼフ・ユング
- Reading
- ふらんつ・よーぜふ・ゆんぐ
- Born
- March 5, 1949 (age 77)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Ox
- Origin
- Erbach, Darmstadt Government Region, Germany
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- politician / lawyer / jurist / notary
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Awards & achievements
- 2007 Schleudersachse
- 2019 Hessian Order of Merit
- Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Politician — see all → · Lawyer — see all → · More people from Germany →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.