Mike German, Baron German

The Right Honourable The Lord German OBE
Official portrait, 2022
Deputy First Minister of Wales[a]
In office 13 June 2002 – 8 May 2003
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Preceded by	Jenny Randerson (acting)
Succeeded by	Ieuan Wyn Jones (2007)[b]
In office 16 October 2000 – 6 July 2001
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Jenny Randerson (acting)
Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats[c]
In office 5 November 2007 – 8 December 2008 (de jure)
Federal party leader	Vince Cable Nick Clegg
Preceded by	Lembit Öpik
Succeeded by	Kirsty Williams
In office 20 November 1998 – 5 November 2007 (de facto)
Federal party leader	Paddy Ashdown Charles Kennedy Ming Campbell Vince Cable
De jure leader	Richard Livsey Lembit Öpik
Preceded by	Richard Livsey
Succeeded by	Himself (de jure)
Minister for Rural Affairs and Wales Abroad
In office 13 June 2002 – 8 May 2003
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Preceded by	Carwyn Jones
Succeeded by	Carwyn Jones
Minister for Economic Development
In office 16 October 2000 – 6 July 2001
First Minister	Rhodri Morgan
Preceded by	Rhodri Morgan
Succeeded by	Rhodri Morgan
Assembly Member for South Wales East
In office 6 May 1999 – 30 June 2010
Preceded by	Assembly established
Succeeded by	Veronica German
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 June 2010 Life Peerage
Leader of Cardiff City Council
In office 8 May 1987 – 2 May 1991 Co-leading with Alun Michael
Preceded by	Ron Watkiss
Succeeded by	John Phillips
Personal details
Born	Michael James German (1945-05-08) 8 May 1945 (age 79) Cardiff, Wales
Political party	Liberal Democrats (since 1988) Liberal Party (before 1988)
Other political affiliations	SDP–Liberal Alliance (1981–1988)
Spouse(s)	Georgette ​ (divorced)​ Veronica ​ (m. 2006)​
Children	2
Alma mater	St Mary's College London Open University University of the West of England
Signature
Website	Archived website

Michael James German, Baron German OBE (born 8 May 1945) is a Welsh politician who was Deputy First Minister of Wales from 2000 to 2001 and 2002 to 2003 and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 1998 to 2008, first as its de facto leader until 2007 and then as its official leader from 2007. He was also Minister for Economic Development from 2000 to 2001 and Minister for Rural Affairs and Wales Abroad from 2002 to 2003. German was elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 where he was Assembly Member (AM) for South Wales East until 2010 and led his party group until 2008. In 2010, he was granted a life peerage and joined the House of Lords as a working peer for the Liberal Democrats. He was the first-ever deputy first minister of Wales and he is ideologically on the more liberal wing of the Liberal Democrats.

German was born Michael James German in Cardiff, Wales. He studied at St Mary's College London, the Open University and the University of the West of England before working in a career of teaching until 1990. He joined the Liberal Party in the 1970s and was elected as the SDP–Liberal Alliance's candidate for the ward of Cathays at the 1983 Cardiff City Council election. In the council, he led the Alliance and its successor party the Liberal Democrats until 1995. He served as the co-leader of the council alongside Alun Michael of the Labour Party from 1987 to 1992 for the duration of a coalition between their parties and the Conservative Party. He also stood as his party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Cardiff North at the October 1974 general election and the 1979 general election, and for Cardiff Central at the 1983 general election and 1987 general election, failing to win on each occasion. From 1990 to 1999, he was also the head of the Welsh Joint Education Committee's (WJECs) unit in Europe. He was awarded an OBE in 1996 for public and political service.

In the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum, German led his party's campaign to support the creation of a devolved assembly for Wales, also becoming one of the leading campaigners for the successful cross-party Yes campaign. In 1998, he defeated Christine Humphreys in a leadership contest to become the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Group in the National Assembly for Wales. This made him the de facto leader of the party, although Richard Livsey and Lembit Öpik remained the de jure leaders until 2007. At the first assembly election in 1999, German was elected as AM for South Wales East; he was re-elected at the 2003 assembly election and 2007 assembly election. He later won another leadership contest in 2007 to become the official party leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, succeeding Öpik, before stepping down as leader a year later in 2008.

In the National Assembly, German led the Welsh Liberal Democrats in opposition from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2003 to 2008. In 2000, he negotiated and formed a coalition government with Labour's Rhodri Morgan and became Deputy First Minister and Minister for Economic Development. He stood down from the government in 2001 for the duration of a police investigation into allegations of financial misconduct during his time at the WJEC. He was cleared of wrongdoing in 2002 and returned to the government as the deputy first minister and the minister for rural affairs and Wales abroad. Labour ended its coalition with German's party after it made gains at the 2003 assembly election. Following the hung result of the 2007 assembly election, German tried to negotiate a coalition with Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives which failed to receive the endorsement of his own party, with Plaid choosing to form a coalition with Labour as a result. He remained in the assembly until 2010.

In 2010, German left the assembly after he was granted a life peerage in Gordon Brown's 2010 Dissolution Honours list. He has since been a member of the House of Lords as a working peer for the Liberal Democrats, where he has called for its abolition and replacement with an elected lower chamber. He was an opponent of the Rwanda asylum plan of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak's Conservative governments and in 2024 led an unsuccessful attempt by Liberal Democrat peers to block the government's Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which would overturn a court ruling that declared Rwanda an unsafe country for refugees and asylum seekers. He was a member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee from 2020 to 2023 and has also chaired the Parliament Choir.

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