Carsten Christoffer Linnemann (born 10 August 1977) is a German economist and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the

German Bundestag German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

since the 2009 election, representing

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for th ...

. Since 2022, he has been one of five deputy chairs of the CDU, under the leadership of chairman

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician, serving as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 31 January 2022 and as leader of the Union parliamentary group as well as the Leader o ...

. From 2013 until 2021, Linnemann served as the chairman of MIT, the pro-business wing in the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian S ...

Professional career

Between 2006 and 2007, Linnemann, a devoted

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, was an assistant to Norbert Walter, chief economist of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

. He subsequently worked as economist with

IKB Deutsche Industriebank IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG (FWB: IKBG) is a bank headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was established in 1924 under the name Bank für Industrie-Obligationen (). IKB supports medium-sized enterprises in Germany and Europe with loans, risk ...

from 2007 to 2009, where he focused on small and medium enterprises.

Political career

Since 2009, Linnemann has been serving on the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs, where he is his parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on welfare payments (''Arbeitslosengeld II''). In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there ar ...

'' of the Christian Democrats ( CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

) and the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...

(SPD) following the 2013 federal elections, Linnemann was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on labor policy, led by

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding su ...

and

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April 2 ...

. In similar talks following the 2017 federal elections, he was again part of the working group on social affairs, this time led Nahles, Karl-Josef Laumann and Barbara Stamm. However, he later abstained in the party leadership's vote on endorsing the renewed

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there ar ...

under

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...

. From 2018 to 2021, Linnemann served as deputy chairman of the

parliamentary group under the leadership of successive chairmen

Volker Kauder Volker Kauder (born 3 September 1949) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as parliamentary group leader of the ruling CDU/CSU faction in the German '' Bundestag'' from 2005 to 2018, during which ...

and

Ralph Brinkhaus Ralph Brinkhaus (born 15 June 1968) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as parliamentary leader of the CDU/CSU group in the Bundestag from 2018 to 2022. Education and early career Brinkhaus was born on 15 J ...

. In this capacity, he oversaw the group's initiatives on economic policy, small and medium businesses, tourism and energy. Since 2022, Linnemann has been leading a working group – alongside Serap Güler and Mario Voigt – in charge of drafting the CDU’s new

party platform A political party platform (US English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British & often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principle goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, in order ...

Other activities

* Competence Center for Sustainable Energy Technology,

University of Paderborn Paderborn University (german: Universität Paderborn) is one of the fourteen public research universities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It was founded in 1972 and 20,308 students were enrolled at the university in the winter ...

, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2011) * Institute for Lightweight Design with Hybrid Systems (ILH),

, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2011) * Ludwig Erhard Foundation, Member *

SC Paderborn 07 Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest successes since the turn of the mille ...

, Deputy Chairman of the Business Advisory Council

Political positions

On 17 July 2015, Linnemann voted against the government's proposal to negotiate a third bailout for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. In June 2017, he voted against Germany's introduction of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. In 2019, Linnemann drew sharp criticism for saying that children who speak little German shouldn’t immediately be allowed to enter elementary school. Ahead of the 2021 national elections, Linnemann endorsed

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 ...

as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed

.Timo Frasch and Eckart Lohse (12 April 2021)
CDU unterstützt Laschet: Von Euphorie keine Spur
''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

''.

References

External links