Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling was born in Innsbruck in 1930, the first child of the distinguished composer Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling. He studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich , from which he graduated with a PhD in Sinology in 1956.

For 25 years Dr Schwarz-Schilling ran a successful medium-sized family enterprise making batteries and electronic equipment.

In 1960 Dr Schwarz-Schilling joined the CDU (German Christian-Democrats). He was a member of the Landtag in Hessen from1966-1976 and was elected to the German Bundestag in 1976.

As a member of the German Parliament (1976-2002), he served in various capacities, including Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (1994-2002) and as a member of the Committees on Foreign Relations (1995-2002) and Economy (1993-1998).

From 1982 to 1992 Dr Schwarz-Schilling was Minister for Posts and Telecommunications.

Dr Schwarz-Schilling resigned from the government in 1992 in protest at Germany ’s and Europe’s inability to stop the fighting in former Yugoslavia . He immediately became involved in delivering humanitarian aid to victims of the fighting and then in political efforts to bring an end to the war. In the final year of the conflict Dr Schwarz-Schilling began working as an international mediator at a local level inside BiH.

In this capacity, he spent ten years travelling to every part of the country working with community leaders to foster dialogue and rebuild trust in such a way that ordinary people could reconstruct their lives. Drawing on the lessons learned from this work, Dr. Schwarz-Schilling and his team developed a methodology of integrative mediation which promotes mediation at the local level in the Western Balkans.

In addition to his duties as High Representative, Dr. Schwarz-Schilling was appointed by the European General Affairs & External Relations Council on 30 January 2006, as the European Union's Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina , with effect from  1 February 2006 . 

Dr. Schwarz-Schilling has extensive experience in the business sector and is a partner in a telecommunications consulting firm. 

Dr Schwarz-Schilling is married to Marie-Luise Schwarz-Schilling and they have two children and four grandchildren.

Office of the High Representative