Uwe Schummer (born 14 November 1957 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) is a German

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from

Willich Willich () is a town in the district of Viersen (district), Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is 20 km west of Düsseldorf, 14 km north of Mönchengladbach, 10 km south of Krefeld, about 30 kilometres east of Germany–Netherlands b ...

who was 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 2002 until 2021.

Early life and career

After finishing school in 1974, Schummer completed an apprenticeship as a merchant. From 1979 to 1980 he did his military service in 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 ...

sports promotion section in Warendorf. From 1978 to 1983 he took part in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

at the

German Athletics Championships The German Athletics Championships () are the national championships in athletics of Germany, organised annually by the Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband. The competition features track and field events. Separate championships are held for non-tra ...

. After his military service, Schummer worked as a clerk at Stadtwerke Willich until he 1983 when he began to work for the Catholic Workers Movement (KAB). From 1987 to 1989 he was Chief of Staff at the parliamentary office of Minister of Labor

Norbert Blüm Norbert Blüm (21 July 1935 – 23 April 2020) was a German politician who served as a Federation, federal legislator from North Rhine-Westphalia, chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU North Rhine-Westphalia (1987–1999), ...

(CDU). In 1989 he became press spokesman of the

Christian Democratic Employees' Association The Christian Democratic Workers Association (''Christlich-Demokratische Arbeitnehmerschaft'') (CDA)Gerd-Rainer Horn, Emmanuel Gerard, ''Left Catholicism: Catholics and society in Western Europe at the point of liberation, 1943-1955'', Leuven Univer ...

(CDA). Since 2009 Schummer is in a civil partnership.

Member of the Bundestag

Schummer has always won direct election to the Bundestag in the Viersen constituency: * Parliamentary elections on 22 September 2002: 44.1% of the primary vote * Parliamentary elections on 18 September 2005: 48.1% of the primary vote * Parliamentary elections on 27 September 2009: 48.9% of the primary vote * Parliamentary elections on 22 September 2013: 53% of the primary vote From 2014 Schummer served as Commissioner 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 A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

for people with disabilities. He was a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, where he served as spokesperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2009 to 2014. 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

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 ...

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 ...

's 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, Schummer was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on education and research policy, led by

Johanna Wanka Johanna Wanka (''née'' Müller; born 1 April 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as federal minister for education and research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. F ...

and

Doris Ahnen Doris Maria Ahnen is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Minister for Finance in the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2014. Prior to that she served as the Minister for Education, Rese ...

. Following the 2017 elections, Schummer announced that he would not stand in the

2021 elections 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

* action medeor, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2004) *

RWE Power AG RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first a ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board *

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: , "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider i ...

, Member

Political positions

Ahead of the Christian Democrats’

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...

in 2018, Schummer publicly endorsed

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...

to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair. In 2019, he joined 14 members of his parliamentary group who, in an open letter, called for the party to rally around Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer amid criticism voiced by conservatives

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 ...

and

Roland Koch Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bund ...

. In 2019, Schummer joined an international group of parliamentarians in a joint call for a body to strengthen the democratic representation of the world’s citizens in global affairs and the UN’s decision-making.Call to action on the creation of a UN parliamentary assembly
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', March 6, 2019.

External links

Website of Uwe Schummer

Biography of Uwe Schummer on the Website of the German Parliament

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schummer, Uwe 1957 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany LGBTQ members of the Bundestag LGBTQ conservatism German gay politicians 20th-century German LGBTQ people 21st-century German LGBTQ people People from Willich West German sprinters Athletes from Düsseldorf (region)