Volker Bouffier (born 18 December 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister President of the German state of

Hessen Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a 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 historic cities are Da ...

from 31 August 2010 to 31 May 2022. From 1 November 2014 until 31 October 2015 he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

. Bouffier has been serving as the chairman of the CDU in Hesse since July 2010. From 1999 to 2010, he was State Minister of Interior and Sports in of

. Bouffier is a lawyer by profession. Because of his participation in state government, he is the longest serving Member of the Bundesrat, representing Hessen since 1999.

Early life and career

Bouffier grew up in

Giessen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the Germany, German States of Germany, state () of Hesse, capital of both the Giessen (district), district of Giessen and the Giessen (region), administrative region of Giessen. The population is appro ...

. His father Robert Bouffier (1920–1999) was a lawyer and CDU local politician in Giessen; his grandfather Robert Ferdinand August Bouffier (1883–1971) moved from

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

to Giessen in 1906, where he later became a CDU politician. His paternal family is of French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

ancestry. He studied law at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

and completed his studies in 1977. From 1975 to 1978 he was a research assistant in

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

at the University of Giessen, and in 1978 he was called to the bar. He practiced law for many years in addition to his political activities and is currently an inactive partner in the law firm Bouffier & Wolf. In 2024 he took part in a musical project called "Ein offenes Herz" by electronic musician Thomas Albertsen (Globotom) reciting quotes from Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther".

Political career

Bouffier was leader of the Hessian Young Union, the youth organisation of the CDU, from 1978 to 1984. Bouffier was first elected to the Parliament of the State of Hesse in 1982. He served as State Minister of the Interior and Sports in the government of Minister-President Roland Koch from 1999 to 2010. When Koch announced his withdrawal from the political scene and resigned in August 2010, he nominated Bouffier as his successor to lead the center-right CDU-FDP government that was formed after the 2009 state elections. 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 ...

of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2009 federal elections, Bouffier was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs, led by Wolfgang Schäuble and Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. In 2010, Bouffier was elected vice chairman of the CDU and has since been serving in the party's national leadership under successive chairwomen

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 ...

(2012–2018) and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (since 2018). On 7 June 2011, he was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in honor 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 at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. Under Bouffier's leadership, Hesse joined forces with

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in early 2013 to launch a constitutional challenge to the Germany's system of tax transfers in order to stop subsidising spending in the city of Berlin, the national capital, and all the poorer states. At the time, Hesse was the third largest net contributor, with an annual transfer of almost €1.3 billion. On 8 February 2013, Bouffier agreed to the proposal of the President

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. During the P ...

to hold the state elections on the same day as Germany's federal elections. When the official result gave no major parties and their traditional coalition partners a clear majority in the parliament, Bouffier decided to break ranks with the rest of

's conservative party and seek a coalition government with the Greens rather than 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). He thereby created only the second CDU-Green coalition to govern a German state, after the previous government of Hamburg. On the federal level, he was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Merkel,

Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister for the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the ...

and Sigmar Gabriel in the negotiations to form a

. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of parliament, Bouffier is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Defence. In October 2015, while he held the rotating presidency of the Bundesrat, he hosted the three-day festivities for the 25th anniversary of the reunification of the former East and West German states. On 25 February 2022, Bouffier announced his resignation from the post of minister-president which will become effective on 31 May.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Helaba, Member of the Board of Public Owners (2010–2022) * KfW, Member of Board of Supervisory Directors (2011–2013)

Non-profit organizations

* Committee for the preparation of the Reformation anniversary 2017, ex-officio member of the board of trustees *

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

, member of the board of trustees * Hessische Kulturstiftung, chairman of the board of trustees (2010–2022) * House of Finance at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

, member of the board of trustees * Paul Ehrlich Foundation of the

, honorary chairman of the board of trustees * Senckenberg Nature Research Society, chairman of the board of trustees * Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe, member of the board of trustees * Landesstiftung Miteinander in Hessen, chairman of the board of trustees * Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (HSFK), member of the board of trustees * Fritz Bauer Institute, member of the board of trustees * Stiftung Flughafen Frankfurt/Main für die Region - chairman of the Bboard * Internatsschule Schloss Hansenberg, chairman of the board of trustees * Bad Hersfelder Festspiele, patron * ''Filmbildung – Jetzt!'', German Film Institute, Honorary Chairman of the board of trustees * Frankfurt Biotechnology Innovation Center (FiZ), Chairman of the Supervisory Board (2010–2022)

Political positions

Ahead of the 2021 Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election, Bouffier publicly opposed

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 ...

as candidate to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair. Instead, he publicly endorsed Armin Laschet's candidacy.

Controversy

German politicians from across the political spectrum criticized

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen in December 2012 following reports he had telephoned Bouffier to complain about a raid on the bank's

Twin Towers Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

in Frankfurt – even though Bouffier's office was not directly responsible for overseeing the action. During the trial of Beate Zschäpe for the NSU murders, the BfV agent Andreas Temme who was at the scene of one of the murders, yet claimed not to have noticed it, was accused by the prosecution of having sympathies towards

Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

himself, thus casting doubt on his testimony. Bouffier, then interior minister of Hesse, shielded Temme from further investigations, citing protection of undercover agents.

Personal life

Bouffier is married to his wife Ursula, a former radiology assistant. In early 2019, he underwent treatment for

skin cancer Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the Human skin, skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells (biology), cells that have the ability to invade or metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. It occurs when skin cells grow ...

. In 2024, he took part in a musical project called “Ein offenes Herz” by electronic musician Thomas Albertsen (Globotom), reciting quotes from Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe's novel ''

The Sorrows of Young Werther ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (; ), or simply ''Werther'', is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the ''Sturm und Drang'' ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouffier, Volker 1951 births Living people People from Giessen German Lutherans Presidents of the German Bundesrat Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Members of the Landtag of Hesse Minister-presidents of Hesse Ministers of the Hesse State Government