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Karl-Josef Laumann
Karl-Josef Laumann (born 11 July 1957) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Since 2017, he has been the State Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, an office he previously held between 2005 and 2010. Background and personal life Laumann grew up with his parents and two brothers on a farm in Birgte, North Rhine-Westphalia. After attending school he was apprenticed as a machinist. After some military service, from 1978 to 1990 he gained experience at the Niemeyer company in Riesenbeck. As a member of IG Metall, he was for many years on the works council. Karl-Josef Laumann is married and has three children. His eldest daughter is now secretary of the Junge Union in his home community of Riesenbeck. Political career Karl-Josef Laumann started his political career at the Junge Union in the district of Steinfurt, as an honorary chairman, a position he still holds. Since 1974 he has been a member of the CDU and since 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armin Laschet
Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 31 January 2022. He was elected to the German Bundestag following the 2021 German federal election. Laschet earned a law degree and worked as a journalist before and during his early political career. In 1994 he was elected to the Bundestag and in 1999 he became a Member of the European Parliament. In 2005 he entered state politics in North Rhine-Westphalia as a member of the state government. In 2012 he became leader of the state party, and he was elected Prime Minister of the state in 2017. His Cabinet consisted of members of his own CDU and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). In January 2021, Laschet was elected leader of the CDU, winning 52.8% of delegates votes against Friedrich Merz in the second round of the contest. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CDU/CSU
CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties ( ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic and conservative political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The CSU contests elections only in Bavaria, while the CDU operates in the other 15 states of Germany. The CSU also reflects the particular concerns of the largely rural, Catholic south."Christian Democrat Union/Christian Social Union" Country Studies, Germany. Retrieved 18 December 2016. While the two Christian Democratic parties are commonly described as sister parties, they have shared a common parliamentary group, the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group, in the German |
Federal Ministry Of Health (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Health (, ; abbreviated BMG) is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is the highest German federal government department responsible for health. The ministry is officially located in Bonn and with a second office, which houses the ministry's management, located in Berlin. History The Federal Ministry of Health was founded in 1961; in 1969 it was merged with the Federal Ministry for Family and Youth to create the new Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health. In 1991, the Federal Ministry of Health was restored. In 2002, it was expanded to include social affairs and renamed "Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security" ('). It was headed by the Federal Minister for Health and Social Security. Its portfolio included one part of the former Federal Ministry of Labour and the Social Order. The other part of the latter was added to the portfolio of the newly created Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour. Under the gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Lauterbach
Karl Wilhelm Lauterbach (; born 21 February 1963) is a German scientist, physician, and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Federal Minister of Health from 2021 to 2025. He is professor of health economics and epidemiology at the University of Cologne (on leave since 2005). Since the 2005 German federal election, he has been a member of the Bundestag (the German parliament). During the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, his name became well known through his frequent appearances on television talk shows as an invited guest expert, along with his frequent use of Twitter to provide commentary about the ongoing pandemic. Early life and education Lauterbach studied human medicine at the RWTH Aachen University, University of Texas at San Antonio and graduated from the University of Düsseldorf. From 1989 to 1992, he studied health policy and management as well as epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, graduating with a Doct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jens Spahn
Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag (, MdB), for Steinfurt I – Borken I since 2002. Since 2025, he has been leading the joint CDU/CSU (Union) parliamentary group in the 21st Bundestag, making him the majority leader. He served as Federal Minister of Health in the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021, including during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. At the time of his first election in 2002, Spahn – at age 22 – was the youngest member of the CDU in the German parliament. He has since been one of the main sponsors of pension reform in Germany. He was a member of the Committee of Health of the 17th Bundestag and the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's spokesperson on health. When Chancellor Angela Merkel stated her intention not to seek re-election for the CDU party leadership in 2018, Spahn announced his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2013 German Federal Election
The 2013 German federal election was held on 22 September to elect the members of the 18th Bundestag of Germany. At stake were all 598 seats to the Bundestag, plus 33 overhang seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian Social Union of Bavaria ( CDU/CSU) of incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel won their best result since 1990 with nearly 42% of the vote and nearly 50% of the seats, just five short for an overall majority. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) failed to meet the 5% vote electoral threshold in what was their worst showing ever in a federal election at the time, denying them seats in the Bundestag for the first time in their history. As the FDP, the CDU/CSU's junior coalition partner, failed to get any seats, any prospective government was required to be a coalition. The only possible coalition government excluding the CDU/CSU would have been a left-wing red–red–green coalition, since a red–green alliance, similar to the German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Social Union Of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German language, German: , CSU) is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic and Conservatism in Germany, conservative List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. Having a regionalism (politics), regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), operates in the other fifteen states of Germany. It #Relationship with the CDU, differs from the CDU by being somewhat more conservative in social matters, following Catholic social teaching. The CSU is considered the ''de facto'' successor of the Weimar Republic, Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party. At the federal level, the CSU forms a common faction in the Bundestag with the CDU which is frequently referred to as the Union Faction (''die Unionsfraktion'') or simply CDU/CSU. The CSU has had 43 seats in the Bundestag since the 2021 German federal election, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Coalition (Germany)
In German politics, a grand coalition ( , shortened to: ) is a governing coalition between the two parties with the most parliamentarians on federal or state level. The term is generally linked to a coalition between centre-right CDU/CSU alliance (''Union'', consisting of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) parties) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), since they have historically been the major parties in most state and federal elections since 1949. The meaning of the term changed due to the growth of some formerly minor parties in recent years. The last formation of a coalition between those parties, after the 2025 federal election, marked the first time, that one of the two parties does not have the most or 2nd most parlamentarians (the AfD won the second most seats). Therefore the latest coalition between the alliance and SPD is often instead described as a black-red coalition (referring to the colors of the CDU ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiegel Online
' () is a German news website. It was established in 1994 as ''Spiegel Online'' as a content mirror of the magazine ''Der Spiegel''. In 1995, the site began producing original stories and it introduced ''Spiegel Online International'' for articles translated into English in 2004. The magazine and website were editorially aligned in 2019 and ''Spiegel Online'' was rebranded ''Der Spiegel'' in January 2020. Company and editorial staff Regular staff includes 150 people in the Hamburg headquarters, complemented by freelancers, and news bureaus both domestic and international. In the German capital, Berlin, 15 correspondents cover the German federal government, political parties, corporations and artists. The Munich and Düsseldorf offices have one correspondent each. There are journalists based in Washington, D.C., New York, London, Moscow, New Delhi and Istanbul. The online news staff also receives support from magazine's network of correspondents in Germany and abroad. Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirk Niebel
Dirk Niebel (; born 29 March 1963) is a German politician. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development. From 2005 to 2009, he was secretary general of the FDP. Early life and career Niebel was born in Hamburg on 29 March 1963. After his '' Fachhochschulreife'' (college entrance qualification) in 1983, Niebel lived for one year in a Kibbutz in Israel. Later he served for eight years as an airborne infantry noncommissioned officer in the Bundeswehr in Calw. He then studied at the German College of Public Administration in Mannheim and finished his studies in 1993 as ''Diplom-Verwaltungswirt'' (similar to a ''Master of Public Administration'' degree). In 1982, he spent a summer in the kibbutz Kfar Giladi. From 1993 to 1998, Niebel worked at an employment bureau in Sinsheim, a part of the Federal Employment Office of Heidelberg. Niebel is married and has three sons. Political career In 1977, Niebel joined the Junge Union, and in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Pofalla
Ronald Pofalla (born 15 May 1959) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery and a Federal Minister for Special Affairs from 2009 to 2013, in the second coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. From 2017 to 2022, he was the CEO of the infrastructure department of Deutsche Bahn. Early life and education Pofalla studied social pedagogy at the Fachhochschule in Kleve. After finishing with a Diplom in 1981 he studied law at the University of Cologne. In 1991 he passed the second Staatsexamen. Since that time Pofalla has been licensed to work as a lawyer. Political career Early beginnings Pofalla has been a member of the CDU since 1975. At first he was engaged in the Junge Union. He was chairman of the JU in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1986 to 1992. Member of the German Parliament, 1990–2014 During his time in parliament, Pofalla served on the Committee for the Scr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 German Federal Election
The 2009 German federal election was held in Germany on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag. The Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party (FDP) won the election, and the three parties formed a new centre-right government with Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany, chancellor. While CDU/CSU's share of votes decreased slightly, it was more than compensated by the gains of their "desired coalition partner", the liberal FDP, that won the strongest result in its history. CDU and CSU's former partner in the "Grand coalition (Germany), Grand coalition", the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, conceded defeat after dropping by more than 11 percentage points, receiving its hitherto worst result since the end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
