Dr Gerhard Papke is the President of the German-Hungarian Society in the Federal Republic of Germany. He was born in Recklinghausen on 16 May 1961. In 1983, Dr Gerhard Papke joined the FDP and received a scholarship from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. From 2000 to 2017, Papke was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament. During this time, he was the economic policy spokesman of the FDP state parliamentary group from 2000 to 2005 and chairman of the FDP state parliamentary group from 2005 to 2012. From 2012 to 2017, he held the office of Vice-President of the Landtag.