Thilo Sarrazin

Sarrazin was born in Gera, Germany. His father was a doctor and his mother was the daughter of a West Prussian landowner. His paternal ancestors were French Huguenots who originated in Burgundy, while his grandmother was English and another ancestor was Italian. He has explained that his name means Saracen (i.e. Muslim) and is common in Southern France: "It is derived from the Arab pirates that were called 'Saracens' in the Middle Ages". He has referred to himself as "a European mongrel".

He grew up in Recklinghausen where he graduated from the local gymnasium after which he did his military service. From 1967 to 1971, he studied economics at the University of Bonn, earning his doctorate. From November 1973 to December 1974 he worked for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and became active in the SPD.

Career as civil servant

In 1975 Sarrazin began working in the Federal Ministry of Finance. Until 1981 he served as a department head in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and from 1981 he returned to the Federal Ministry of Finance. From October 1981 he served as bureau chief and was a close collaborator of Federal Finance Minister Hans Matthöfer and his successor Manfred Lahnstein. Even after the end of the socialist-liberal coalition in October 1982, Sarrazin remained in the Finance Ministry, where he was director of several units, including (from 1989 to 1990) the "Innerdeutsche Beziehungen," which prepared the German monetary, economic and social union. During his time as Head of the Federal Ministry of Finance, he was partly responsible for German railways.

From 1990 to 1991 Sarrazin worked for the Treuhand. Up to 1997, he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in Rhineland-Palatinate. Subsequently, he was chief executive of TLG Immobilien (TLG).

Sarrazin is married to Ursula Sarrazin (née Breit) and has two sons. His apparent characteristic smirk is due to an operation he had in 2004 to remove a tumour on an inner ear nerve, resulting in an impairment of the right side of his face.