Reinhard Houben (born 29 April 1960) is a German 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 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

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

from 2017 to 2025.

Early life and career

Houben graduated in business administration in Siegen in 1983 with a degree in business administration. Since 1984 he has been managing partner of Arnold Houben GmbH, a medium-sized trading company in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

’s Rodenkirchen district.

Political career

Houben has been a member of the FDP since 1983. On a local level, he served on the city council of Cologne from 1989 until 1994 and from 2009 until 2017. Houben became a member of the Bundestag 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 Economic Affairs and Energy, where he was his parliamentary group’s spokesperson on economic policy. 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, Houben was part of his party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired by

Carsten Schneider Carsten Schneider (born 23 January 1976) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Climate Protection and Nuclear Safety in the government of Ch ...

Cem Özdemir Cem Özdemir (; ; born 21 December 1965) is a German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Germany), Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture in the Scholz cabinet, cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 202 ...

and

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 ...

. In September 2024, Houben announced that he would not stand in the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.Julia Hahn-Klose (27 September 2024)
FDP-Bundestagsabgeordneter Reinhard Houben tritt nicht erneut zur Wahl an
''

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger The ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' (KStA) is a German daily newspaper published in Cologne, and has the largest circulation in the Cologne–Bonn Metropolitan Region. ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' has a base of over 100 contributing editors and a wide ...

''.

Other activities

* Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Advisory Board *

Koelnmesse Koelnmesse GmbH (''Cologne Trade Fair'') is an international trade fair and exhibition center located in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With around 80 trade fairs and over 2,000 conferences annually, Koelnmesse is one of the country' ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (2014–2018)

References

External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houben, Reinhard 1960 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)