Pascal Kober (born 3 July 1971) is a German

military chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases, they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term ''cha ...

and politician of the

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) who has served 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 of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

from 2009 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2025. In addition to his parliamentary work, Kober has been serving as the Commissioner for the Victims of Domestic Terrorist Activities at the Federal Ministry of Justice 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 ...

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 ...

since 2022.

Early life and education

Born in

Sindelfingen Sindelfingen ( Swabian: ''Sendlfenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg in south Germany. It lies near Stuttgart at the headwaters of the Schwippe (a tributary of the river Würm), and is home to a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant. The current mayor ...

, Kober grew up in Böblingen and studied

Protestant theology Protestant theology refers to the doctrines held by various Protestant traditions, which share some things in common but differ in others. In general, Protestant theology, as a subset of Christian theology, holds to faith in the Christian Bible, t ...

at the universities of

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, and

Neuendettelsau Neuendettelsau is a local authority in Middle Franconia, Germany. Neuendettelsau is situated 20 miles southwest of Nuremberg and 12 miles east of Ansbach. Since 1947 it has a Lutheran seminary ( ''Augustana Hochschule''). Politics The mayor is C ...

Career

Kober is pastor of the

Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg () is a Lutheran member church of the Protestant Church in Germany in the German former state of Württemberg, now part of the state of Baden-Württemberg. The seat of the church is in Stuttgart. It ...

and was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2013, representing the

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

district. During that time, he served on the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs and the

Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid The Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid has been a permanent Bundestag committee since its establishment in 1998. Tasks The Bundestag Committee is dedicated to human dignity and human rights. Its agenda includes correcting domestic vio ...

. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group. Kober retired from politics with the federal elections in 2013 and worked as a

at the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

's Stetten am kalten Markt and Pfullendorf sites from March 2014. In 2015 and 2016 he went on two foreign missions to

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, as part of the

European Union Training Mission in Mali EUTM Mali (European Union Training Mission in Mali) was a European Union multinational military training mission headquartered in Bamako, Mali. 22 EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece ...

(EUTM Mali) in

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

and the

United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (, MINUSMA) was a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. MINUSMA was established on 25 April 2013 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2100 to stabilise ...

(MINUSMA) in

Gao Gao (or Gawgaw/Kawkaw) is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an imp ...

. Kober was elected deputy state chairman of the FDP in Baden-Württemberg on 5 January 2015 in Stuttgart, serving under the leadership of chairman

Michael Theurer Michael Theurer (born 12 January 1967) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2017 to 2024. From 2009 until 2017, he was a Member of the Europe ...

. Kober became a member of the Bundestag again in the

2017 German federal election The 2017 German federal election was held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the List of members of the 19th Bundestag, members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 Overhang seat, overhan ...

. From January 2018, he was a member of the Committee for Labour and Social Affairs. He is also his parliamentary group's spokesperson on social policy. In November 2018, Kober initiated a cross-party interest group on horses. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

of 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), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the FDP following the 2021 German elections, Kober was part of his party's delegation in the working group on

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

, co-chaired by

Dagmar Schmidt Dagmar Schmidt (born 13 March 1973) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, since 2013. Early life and education Schmidt was born in Gießen to polit ...

Sven Lehmann Sven Lehmann (born 14 December 1979) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017. In addition to his parliamentary work, Lehmann served a ...

and Johannes Vogel.

Other activities

Federal Academy for Security Policy The Federal Academy for Security Policy (, BAKS) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy in the remit of the Federal Ministry of Defence. It has its seat i ...

(BAKS), Member of the Advisory Board (since 2022)Advisory Board

(BAKS). * Reservist Association of Deutsche Bundeswehr, Vice-President (since 2019)

References

External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kober, Pascal 1971 births Living people People from Sindelfingen Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)