From 1964 to 1968, Milbradt studied economics, law, and mathematics at the University of Münster. He graduated with a degree in economics in 1968. From 1970 to 1980, he was a scientific assistant at the Institute for finance at the University of Münster, where he obtained his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. pol., summa cum laude) in 1973 and his habilitation in 1980. From 1980 to 1983, Milbradt worked as a substitute professor of finance and political economics at the University of Mainz; since 1985, he has held the title of an (unsalaried) professor at the economics faculty in Münster.
Political career
Career in state politics
Milbradt has been a member of the CDU since 1973. He was head of the finance department of the city of Münster from 1983 to 1990.
Milbradt served as Minister of Finance of Saxony from 1990 to January 2001 but was dismissed from office by Minister-President Kurt Biedenkopf because Milbradt had started a debate about Biedenkopf's succession. Milbradt served as a member of the state board of the CDU from 1991 and became deputy chairman of the state CDU in 1999 and chairman in 2001. From 1994 until 2009, he was a member of the State Parliament of Saxony.
Minister-President of Saxony, 2002–2009
On 18 April 2002, Milbradt was elected as Minister-President of Saxony, despite Biedenkopf's explicit opposition. Milbradt first governed with an absolute CDU majority, but in a coalition with the SPD after the 2004 elections, in which the CDU lost a large number of votes.[1]
During Milbradt's second term, the state government secured a sizable investment by American chipmaker AMD into expanding production of 300-millimeter wafers in Dresden; AMD received an undisclosed volume of subsidies from the government.[2]
In August 2007, amid a global financial crisis, Milbradt announced that the state government would sell its 51 percent share in SachsenLB – which found itself overwhelmed by subprime-linked losses incurred by a number of off-balance-sheet subsidiaries – to the larger Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).[3]
In April 2008 Milbradt announced that he would resign from the office by the end of May and that Stanislaw Tillich would succeed him. He had been under pressure for months because of his involvement in the liquidity crisis of Sachsen LB. Milbradt had also been criticized for private loans from the bank during his time as Minister of Finance in Saxony; in April 2008, the state government confirmed that Milbradt and his wife had borrowed a total of around €172,000 ($272,000) between 1996 and 1999 to help purchase around €360,000 in investment fund products from a subsidiary of the bank.[4]
Life after politics
In 2010, Milbradt and former Mayor of Hannover Herbert Schmalstieg served as arbitrators to mediate in a wage dispute between the German United Services Trade Union (ver.di) and the country's public sector employers.[5] He later successfully mediated in a similar conflict between train operator ODEG and the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL) in 2011.[6] In 2015, the Association of Local Government Employers (VKA) appointed Milbradt as its negotiator in a dispute with employees of day nurseries in Germany; again, Schmalstieg served as his counterpart in the talks.[7] In 2023, he was again appointed as one of two mediators in a protracted wage dispute between Germany’s public sector employers and a group of trade unions.[8]
Since 2017, Milbradt has been serving as the German government's special envoy for the Ukrainian reform agenda;[14] his mandate was extended in 2022.[15]
Mühlbradt, Max: Das Geschlecht Milbradt (Milbrandt, Mildebrath, Milbrath, Milbrod, Mühlbrecht, Mühlbradt). Nachfahrentafeln. Landsberg an der Warthe: Selbstverlag des Verfassers 1934.
Ulrich Brümmer: Parteien und Wahlen in Sachsen, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN3-531-14835-4