Biography
He grew up in a Polish-Jewish merchant family that was saved from the concentration camp during the German National Socialist era thanks to the involvement of the entrepreneur Oskar Schindler. The experiences of his parents had a lasting impact on Michel Friedman's consciousness at a young age. As a schoolboy, he was already involved in the federal board of Jewish students. In 1965 he moved to Frankfurt am Main with his family. After graduating from high school, Michel Friedman first studied medicine for two years, then switched to law. After passing his state law examination in 1988, he settled in Frankfurt as a freelance lawyer. He received his doctorate in law from the University of Mainz in 1994. Michel Friedman began his political career in 1983 by joining the CDU. His political interest was also linked to a strong Jewish identity, which Friedman used early on as an opportunity for his socio-political commitment: in 1984 he became a board member of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main.
A year later he was appointed CDU city councilor in Frankfurt. Friedman also became a member of the ZDF television council. He is also involved in numerous social foundations. In 1994 he was elected to the CDU party executive committee. Here he primarily campaigned for European unification and for a reform of naturalization and citizenship law. In 1995, together with Luc Jochimsen and Holger Weinert, he successfully moderated the HR program "3-2-1 des Hesse Fernsehen". From January 1998, Michel Friedman was the presenter of the ARD program "Beware Friedman!" known to a wider audience. As part of the 30-minute talk show, he covered current topics from politics, business and culture. With his characteristic relentless criticism of his interlocutors, the elegant rhetorician has proven himself to be both a competent and feared political moderator.
In January 2000, Friedmann was appointed vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In this role, he has since accompanied the development of society and political culture in the new Berlin Republic with unmistakable criticism as soon as they seemed to leave the basis of the post-war consensus between German politics and Jewish associations. Such critical development tendencies in reunified Germany include xenophobia and indifference to the historical responsibility not of the individual, but of politics. The growing historical insensitivity towards the crimes of National Socialism is increasingly putting strain on the relationship between German society and the former victim groups. An expression of this alienation was the "anti-Semitism dispute" triggered by the FDP politician Jürgen W. Möllemann in the spring on the occasion of the 2002 federal election campaign. Friedmann and Paul Spiegel, the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, deserve the credit for having put their finger in the wound of the new German state of mind in the dispute.
Michel Friedman was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2001. In June 2003, Friedman was suspected of violating the narcotics law. During a search of Friedman's private and office rooms by the public prosecutor's office, three bags of cocaine residue typical of the scene were seized. Friedman then temporarily withdrew from moderating the programs "Friedman" and "Beautiful Friedman". According to unconfirmed reports, subsequent analysis of a hair sample from Friedman revealed that he had used cocaine "moderately or occasionally." On July 7, 2003, the proceedings against him ended with a fine of 17,400 euros. Michel Friedman apologized to the public at a press conference and then resigned from all of his elected positions on July 8, 2003. The talk show host, who was now convicted, also gave up his television show. At the end of August 2003, the lawyer was elected to the supervisory board of the Berlin-based "Wall AG", which provides outdoor advertising and street furniture in 20 German cities.
On July 16, 2004, Michel Friedman married the presenter Bärbel Schäfer, who converted to the Jewish faith for the marriage. Friedman returned to television in the summer of 2004. On August 22nd, he was in front of the camera again for the first time as the host of the N24 talk show "In Doubt for ... Friedman's Talk". In the weekly Sunday evening program, the doctor of law discusses legal policy disputes with two guests. At the beginning of October 2004, the journalist opened his second series on N24 with the political talk show "Studio Friedman". On January 17, 2005, the presenter couple's first child, a boy named Samuel, was born. The lawyer also acts as Author and published his first novel entitled "Kaddish before Dawn" (Kaddish = prayer for the dead) on May 25, 2005. In October 2005, Michel Friedman was the only German to be appointed to the supervisory board of the Jewish Agency for Israel. The organization represents the link between the State of Israel and the Jewish communities in eighty countries around the world.
