Wolfgang Thierse is a German politician (SPD). He served as the 11th President of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2005. Thierse was born in Breslau (Wrocław in present-day Poland). He is a Roman Catholic and grew up in East Germany. After his A-levels he first worked as a typesetter in Weimar. Then he studied German language and literature at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he was an active member of the Catholic Student Community
