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Dr. Klaus Kinkel (born December 17, 1936) is a German politician (FDP). He was foreign minister and vice chancellor of Germany in the former conservative government.
He was born in Metzingen in Baden-Württemberg in a Catholic family. He took his Abitur at the Staatliches Gymnasium Hechingen and studied law at the universities of Tübingen, Bonn and Cologne. Kinkel took his first juristic state exam at Tübingen, the second in Stuttgart and was eventually promoted dr. jur.
He then worked at the Federal Ministry for the Interior as a personal referent for the Federal Minister and leader of the Minister bureau. From 1974 to 1979 he worked in the Foreign Ministry, and from 1979 to 1982 he was president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst. Then he was appointed state secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice.
He became a member of FDP in 1991, and was a member of parliament from 1994 to 2002. He was Federal Minister of Justice from January 18, 1991 to May 18, 1992, and was then Minister of Foreign Affairs to October 26, 1998. From January 21, 1993, he was also Vice Chancellor of Germany.
From 1993 to 1995 he was chairman of the FDP.
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