Prof. Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering is a Christian Democratic European politician, 12^th President of the European Parliament (2007-2009) and former Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (2009-2017). He was born on 15 September 1945 in Bersenbrück. Pöttering was a Member of the European Parliament without interruption from 1979 to 2014. Between 1999 and 2009 he was a member of the Presidium and the Federal Executive Committee of the CDU of Germany which then co-opted into the Federal Executive Committee. He was also Group Chairman of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (EPP-ED) in the European Parliament from 1999 to 2007, and a member of the Presidium of the European People's Party (EPP) until 2009.