Childhood & Early Life
Klaus Werner Johannis was born on June 13, 1959, in Sibiu, Romania, to Susanne and Gustav Heinz Johannis. He has a younger sister, Krista Johannis. His father worked as a technician at an enterprise, while his mother was a nurse.
He studied physics at the Faculty of Physics of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and graduated in 1983.
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Career
He embarked on a career as a high school physics teacher and worked at various schools and colleges. From 1989 to 1997, he worked at the Samuel von Brukenthal Gymnasium in Sibiu, the oldest German-speaking school in Romania.
In 1997, he was made the Deputy General School Inspector of Sibiu County, a position he held until 1999. He became the General School Inspector, head of public schools in the county in 1999.
Klaus Iohannis had always been interested in politics. He had joined the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR) in 1990 and served as a member of its board of education in Transylvania from 1997.
His first big political achievement came in 2000. The FDGR chose him as a candidate for mayor of Sibiu. He won the election with 69.18% of the votes to become the first ethnic German mayor of a Romanian city since Albert Dörr, who served from 1940 to 1945.
Immediately upon taking up this post, he started working to improve the city which was close to ruins. He began strengthening the infrastructure and implemented administrative reforms.
His determination and dedicated work made him popular and he easily won the re-election in 2004. Continuing with the good work he started during his first term, he restored the city and turned it into one of Romania’s major tourist destinations.
In 2007, Sibiu was declared the European Capital of Culture along with Luxembourg. His popularity soaring by now, he won 87.4% of the vote in 2008 in the mayoral election. He would win the re-election in 2012 as well.
In 2009, a grand coalition made of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR), proposed to President Traian Basescu that he name Iohannis the Prime Minister. Basescu refused.
A powerful politician by now, Klaus Iohannis joined the PNL in 2013. He was soon elected the vice president of the party and in June 2014, he was elected President of the PNL with 95% of the vote.
He became the party’s main candidate for the presidential elections. PNL then made an alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) to support Iohannis’ presidential bid. The two parties formed the Christian Liberal Alliance with Iohannis as its candidate for the presidential election in November 2014.
Viewed as an honest and upright politician, his presidential campaign focused on fighting corruption and on improving the justice system. He also received support from major political figures like Trajan Basescu, former President of the country, and Angela Merkel.
Klaus Iohannis gained 54.43% of the votes in the presidential election, beating his opponent Prime Minister Victor Ponta by a wide margin to emerge victorious. He assumed office as the 5th President of Romania on December 21, 2014.
As the president, he is focused on strengthening the legislation and the justice system, and is working towards building a strongly pro-Western foreign policy. He has made many foreign trips to countries like France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, US, and Israel to engage in talks with the heads of the states and other prominent political figures.
