Volker Kauder
| Volker Kauder | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group | |
|
Assumed office 2005 |
|
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Angela Merkel |
| Member of the Bundestag | |
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Assumed office 1990 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 3, 1949 Hoffenheim, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | CDU |
| Spouse(s) | Elisabeth Biechele |
| Alma mater | University of Freiburg |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Religion | Lutheranism |
Volker Kauder (born 3 September 1949 in Hoffenheim) is a German CDU politician. Since 2005 he has been the parliamentary group leader of the ruling CDU/CSU faction in the German Bundestag. Kauder is frequently referred to as the "right hand" of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Kauder, a student of the Hegau-Gymnasium in Singen, became a member of Junge Union in the age of 17. In 1991, he became Secretary General of Baden-Würtemberg CDU and subsequently served as the party’s campaign manager for the state elections in 1992, 1996 and 2001. He served in this office until the resignation of party chairman Erwin Teufel in 2005.
A trained lawyer, Kauder has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 1990 elections, representing the town of Rottweil in southwestern Germany. In parliament, he first served on the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs. Between 1998 and 2002, he led the Bundestag group of CDU parliamentarians from Baden-Württemberg. In this capacity, he publicly endorsed Edmund Stoiber as the joint CDU/CSU candidate for the 2002 national elections.
Kauder later served as First Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2002 until 2005, under the leadership of the group’s then-chairwoman Angela Merkel.
In early 2005, Merkel nominated Kauder as Secretary General of the CDU, after his predecessor Laurenz Meyer was forced to quit over payments he had received from his past employment with RWE, the power company. Ahead of the 2005 federal elections, he became Merkel’s confidante and campaign coordinator while spearheading CDU proposals to increase VAT by 2 per cent to fund non-wage labour cost-cutting.
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