Michael Günther Meister (born 9 June 1961) is a German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as 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 ...

from the state

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

since 1994. In addition to his parliamentary work, Meister has been serving as Minister of State for Federal-State Relations in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

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 ...

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...

since 2025. From 2018 until 2021 he served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the

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 ...

Early life

Michael Günther Meister was born in 1961 in Lorsch.

Political career

Meister first became a member of the Bundestag in the

1994 German federal election The 1994 German federal election was held in Germany on 16 October 1994 to elect the members of the 13th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor in a narrowly ...

. From 1994 until 1998, he was a member of the Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Regional Planning. From 2004 until 2013, he served as deputy chairman 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 under the leadership of successive chairpersons Angela Merkel (2004-2005) and

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 h ...

(2005-2013). In this capacity, he oversaw the group's initiatives on economic policy. 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 party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

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

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

(SPD) following the 2013 federal elections, Meister was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on financial policies and the national budget, led by

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; 18 September 1942 – 26 December 2023) was a German politician whose political career spanned more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the longest-serving member of any democratic G ...

and

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...

. In the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

cabinet of

, he served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance under minister Wolfgang Schäuble from 2013 until 2018. 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 ...

under Merkel's leadership following the 2017 federal elections, Meister was part of the working group on urban development, led by Bernd Althusmann,

Kurt Gribl Kurt Gribl (born 29 August 1964 Augsburg, Germany) is a former List of mayors of Augsburg, Mayor of Augsburg, Bavaria, an office he held from 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2020. He is a member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria. Early career Gribl ...

and Natascha Kohnen. In early 2023, German news media reported that Meister was the CDU's preferred candidate to succeed Johannes Beermann as member of the board of

Deutsche Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (, , colloquially Buba, sometimes alternatively abbreviated as BBk or DBB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Germany within the Eurosystem. It was the German central bank from 1957 to 19 ...

Other activities

Corporate boards

* KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (2007–2014) *

German Investment Corporation Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) and a subsidiary of KfW Group. It was founded in Cologne in September 1962 as a federally owned company by the former Federal President Walter ...

(DEG), Member of the Supervisory Board (2014–2018)

Non-profit organizations

Senckenberg Nature Research Society The Senckenberg Nature Research Society (, until 2008 ''Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft'') is a German scholarly society with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Overview Its purpose is to conduct research in the natural sciences a ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees * German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), Member of the Board of Trustees (2019–2021) * German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF), Member of the Board (2018–2022) *

Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of the Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new foc ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (2014–2018)

Political positions

In June 2017, Meister 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 legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2022, Meister publicly endorsed

Helge Braun Helge Reinhold Braun (born 18 October 1972) is a German physician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Between 2018 and 2021, he served as Head of the Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the fourth coali ...

to succeed

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 t ...

as the party’s chair.Suche nach neuem CDU-Chef: Kanzleramtschef Helge Braun bekommt Unterstützung
''

RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland The (RND) () is the Hanover-based joint corporate newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editing, editors, and Television producer, producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournal ...

'', November 10, 2021.

References

External links