De Maizière is the name of an influential German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 family of Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 ancestry that migrated from France to Germany in the late 17th century. Several family members have had and still have important roles in German politics and business.

The name derives from Maizières-lès-Metz

Maizières-lès-Metz

Maizières-lès-Metz is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.It was the original home of the German de Maizière family which, being Huguenots, had to emigrate from France to Prussia in the 17th century...

, a commune in the Moselle department in France that was the family's original home.

Important family members

• Ernst de Maizières (born 1841), Landgerichtspräsident of Neuruppin
  Neuruppin
  Neuruppin is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. Located on the shore of Ruppiner See , it is the capital of the district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin. Population: 32,800 .-Overview:...
  
   and one of the authors of the civil code of Germany
  Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
  The Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch is the civil code of Germany. In development since 1881, it became effective on January 1, 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbreaking project....
  
  .

...

• Walter de Maizière, Lawyer
  • Ulrich de Maizière
    Ulrich de Maizière
    Ulrich de Maizière was a German general. He served as an aide to general Adolf Heusinger during World War II and later succeeded Heusinger as Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, holding the position from 1966 to 1972...
    
     (1912–2006), Chief of staff of the Bundeswehr
    Bundeswehr
    The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
    
     1966–1972
    • Thomas de Maizière
      Thomas de Maizière
      Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière is a German politician , currently serving as the Minister of Defence in the Second Cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel....
      
       (born 1954), Chief of the Chancellor's Office and later Minister in the cabinet of Angela Merkel
      Angela Merkel
      Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
      
      
    • Andreas de Maizière, former member of Commerzbank
      Commerzbank
      Commerzbank AG is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.-Activities:Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial bank, retail banking and mortgaging. It suffered reversals in investment banking in early 2000s and scaled back its Securities unit...
      
      's board of directors
  • Clement de Maizière, GDR lawyer, Member of the Ost-CDU and a Stasi
    Stasi
    The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
    
     spy
    • Lothar de Maizière
      Lothar de Maizière
      Lothar de Maizière is a German christian democratic politician. In 1990, he served as the only democratically elected Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic, and as such was the last leader of an independent East Germany....
      
       (born 1940), GDR lawyer, Member of the Ost-CDU, later the only democratically elected head of state of the GDR