Heinz Faßmann was born on 13 August 1955 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Vienna. Faßmann attended primary school from 1962 to 1966 and gymnasium from 1966 to 1974.
Career
Faßmann studied geography and social and economic history at the University of Vienna, graduating with a PhD in 1980. From 1980 to 1981, he was engaged in postgraduate work insociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies. From 1981 to 1992, Faßmann was a researcher with the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He spent his academy years on the academy's commission on land-use planning. On the strength of his commission work, he was appointed director of the Institute of City and Regional Planning in 1992. Four years later, in 1996, Faßmann left Vienna and the academy to become a C4 professor of human geography and geoinformatics at the Technical University of Munich. Another four years later, in 2000, Faßmann returned to Vienna to teach human geography and land-use planning at his alma mater. In 2011, he was made the university's vice rector, a post he held until his transition into politics in 2017. He also served as a member of the senate of the University of Vienna from 2000 to 2006 and as the dean of the Faculty of Geosciences from 2006 to 2011. In addition to his academic work, Faßmann held positions on various committees and sat on the supervisory boards of a number of companies, including one university spin-off incubator. Faßmann ran a spin-off of his own, the Heinz Faßmann Projektentwicklung KG, from 2013 to 2018. He was director of the Expert Commission of German Foundations on Integration and Migration from 2009 to 2017. In 2006 he was, for the second time, appointed Director of the Institute of City and Regional Planning. Faßmann routinely acted as a political consultant and advisor to the Austrian government. He became chairman of the Ministry of Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs Expert Commission on Integration in 2010. He has been sitting on the Ministry of the Interior Migration Council for Austria, later renamed Migration Commission, since 2014. Although Faßmann had never held elected office and never officially attached himself to any political party, he was invited to join the Kurz cabinet as the minister of education. When the cabinet took office on 18 December 2017, Faßmann was appointed minister of education and science. Following a reshuffling of ministerial responsibilities − a move regularly made by new parliamentary majority leaders − he became minister of education, science and research on 8 January 2018. Faßmann has resigned his positions as a vice rector, as the chairman of the commission, and as a member of the council. For the duration of his term in cabinet office, he has also suspended his position as the director of the Institute of City and Regional Planning.
Personal life
Born a German, Heinz Faßmann has been a naturalized Austrian citizen since 1994. He is married and has two children. Faßmann stands well over two meters tall. Correcting media reports that erroneously cited even greater numbers, Faßmann states his height at 203 cm.
