Friedbert Pflüger (born 6 March 1955) is a former German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was a Member of the German Bundestag (1990–2006). He was Secretary of State in the

Federal Ministry of Defence The Federal Ministry of Defence (, ; abbreviated BMVg) is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe barracks itself located at t ...

(2005–2006), and the CDU's candidate for

Governing Mayor of Berlin The governing mayor () of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent states of Germany (), the office is the equivalent of the ministers president of ...

in the

2006 Berlin state election The 2006 Berlin state election was held on 17 September 2006 to elect the members of the 16th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Party of Democratic Soc ...

. He was a member of the

Berlin House of Representatives The of Berlin (House of Representatives) () is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993, the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchnerstraße ...

(2006–2011) and a member of the executive board of the CDU (2000–2010). Today, he is a businessman and teaches Energy and Climate Security at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), University of Bonn. He is Visiting Professor at King’s College London.

Early life and education

Friedbert Pflüger was born in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. He received his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'' (university entrance qualification) at Friedrich Schiller High School in Hanover in 1973. He studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, public and constitutional law and economics in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. He received his Master of Arts degree in 1980 and in 1982 his Dr. phil. degree. His doctoral thesis was directed by

Karl Dietrich Bracher Karl Dietrich Bracher (13 March 1922 – 19 September 2016) was a German political scientist and historian of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, born in Stuttgart. During World War II, he served in the Wehrmacht and was captured by the Americ ...

and examined US-foreign policy "between idealism and realism". In 1980/81, he was a graduate student associate at the Harvard

Center for International Affairs The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA), formerly Center for International Affairs (CFIA) is a research center for international affairs and the largest international research center within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts a ...

(CFIA) under the auspices of

Samuel Huntington Samuel Huntington may refer to: * Samuel Huntington (Connecticut politician) (1731–1796), American jurist, statesman, and revolutionary leader, 18th Governor of Connecticut * Samuel Huntington (Ohio politician) (1765–1817), American jurist, thi ...

. He also taught a seminar on US human rights policy at Harvard.

Political career

Since 1971, Pflüger has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). The first political offices he held were as deputy chairman of the European Democrat Students (EDS) from 1976 to 1978 and as federal chairman of the Association of Christian Democrat Students (RCDS) from 1977 to 1978. From 1977 to 1985, Pflüger was also a member of the federal executive committee of the

Young Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (English: Young Union of Germany) or JU is the joint youth organisation of the CDU/CSU coalition in Germany. Membership is limited to individuals between 14 and 35 years of age. The Junge Union claims to be the large ...

(JU), the youth organization of the CDU/CSU, under the leadership of successive chairmen

Matthias Wissmann Matthias Wissmann (born 15 April 1949) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the president of the Verband der Automobilindustrie, German Automobile Industry ...

and Christoph Böhr. From 1981 to 1984, Pflüger worked for the governing mayor of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...

. When Weizsäcker became the Federal President of Germany in 1984, Pflüger became his spokesman and

speechwriter A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches to be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are employed by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors. They can also be em ...

br>
a job he kept during all the presidency until 1989. Until today, Pflüger sees von Weizsäcker as a "father figure". Between 1989 and 1991, Pflüger worked as manager of the Matuschka Group, Berlin, at that time a leading German investment bank.

Member of the German Bundestag, 1990–2006

In the 1990 German federal election, 1990 elections, Pflüger became a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

, which he remained until 2006. In parliament, Pflüger served as disarmament policy spokesman of the

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 U ...

parliamentary group from 1994 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002, he was chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. In the years from 2002 to 2005, he served as foreign policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. Between 2000 and 2010, Plüger was a member of the federal executive committee of the CDU under the leadership of chairwoman

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) under

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

following the 2005 federal elections, Pflüger led the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on foreign affairs; his counterpart from the SPD was Gernot Erler. In November 2005, he was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the

under minister

Franz Josef Jung Franz Josef Jung (born 5 March 1949) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He became Federal Minister of Defence in the Grand coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel on 22 November 2005. In October 2009 he became Minister ...

, a position in which he remained until October 2006. During his time in office, he managed to negotiate the continuing cooperation with President Karimov and the Uzbek government to use the Termez airbase by the German armed forces in December 2005.

Career in state politics, 2006–2010

In March 2006, Pflüger was elected the top candidate of the CDU for that year's state elections in Berlin. After spending almost no time preparing his election campaign, he lost to incumbent

Klaus Wowereit Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes, 29 ...

of the SPD, as all the polls had indicated. Keeping his promise to remain active in Berlin politics even in case of an electoral defeat, Pflüger assumed the responsibility as the chairman of the CDU Parliamentary Group in the Berlin House of Representatives and gave up his position as a Parliamentary State Secretary. As an opposition leader, he fought, unsuccessfully, against the closure of

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport () was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the ...

. Another aim of his work was to create a more business-friendly environment in Berlin to reduce the high unemployment rate. Pflüger was an outspoken advocate of opening the CDU for a possible coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens (a so-called "Jamaica"-coalition). From 2006 until 2012, Pflüger also served as member of the Executive Council of the

European Peoples Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

(EPP). During his political career, Pflüger wrote books, especially on environment/energy and on foreign and security policy. ''A New World War? The Islamist Challenge to the West'' (''Ein neuer Weltkrieg? Die islamistische Herausforderung des Westens''), which was published in 2004.

Career in the private sector

In 2010, Pflüger announced his decision to withdraw from his political functions and to focus on his role as the Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), King's College London. He is also Senior Advisor to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Pflüger is also managing partner of two business consultancies in Berlin and Arbil (Iraqi-Kurdistan). Since 2016, he has been chairman of th
Internet Economy Foundation
(IE.F).

Other activities

* AIESEC Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees * ''

Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie (Against Oblivion – For Democracy) is a German organization promoting diversity, tolerance and democratic participation, and opposing racism, prejudice and right-wing and left-wing extremism. It focuses in ...

'', Member of the BoardBoard
''

''.

Personal life

Pflüger was married to Margarita Mathiopoulos from 1987 until 2006. He has since re-married and has two children (one son and one daughter). His former dachshund "Oskar" now lives with Berlin's famous hairdresser

Udo Walz Udo Walz (28 July 1944 – 20 November 2020) was a German celebrity hairdresser. Considered the first German celebrity hairdresser, his clientele included politicians Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, Red Army Faction cofounder Ulrike Meinho ...

External links

Website from Dr. Friedbert Pflüger

Biography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfluger, Friedbert 1955 births Living people Politicians from Lower Saxony Members of the Bundestag for Berlin University of Bonn alumni Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998 Members of the Bundestag 1990–1994 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany