Christian Wulff was born in Osnabrück on June 19, 1959.

He joined the CDU at the age of 16 and was state chairman in Lower Saxony from 1978 to 1979 and national chairman of the Students' Union from 1978 to 1980. He was chairman of the Junge Union in his federal state from 1983 to 1985.

He has been a member of the state executive of the CDU in Lower Saxony since 1984, serving as its chairman from 1994 to 2008. Between 1986 and 2001, Wulff was an elected member of Osnabrück City Council. As a directly elected member of parliament for the Osnabrück-West constituency, the qualified lawyer was a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament from 1994 to 2010.

After losing the state elections in 1994 and 1998, Wulff replaced Siegmar Gabriel as Minister President in 2003. He held this office until his election as Federal President on June 30, 2010. The focus of his time in office at Bellevue Palace was the controversial promotion of the integration of Islam into German society.

On February 17, 2012, Christian Wulff resigned from the office of Federal President.