Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière (də mɛˈzi̯ɛːɐ̯; born 21 January 1954) is a German politician (
CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
), currently serving as the
Minister of DefenceThe Federal Ministry of Defence is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany...
(since 3 March 2011) in the Second Cabinet of Chancellor
Angela MerkelAngela 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...
.
A close confidant of Merkel, he served as Chief of Staff at the Chancellor's Office and
Federal Minister for Special AffairsA Federal Minister for Special Affairs is a federal minister without portfolio of Germany.Currently, the title is commonly given to the head of the Chancellery to provide him with a vote in cabinet meetings...
in the First Cabinet Merkel from 2005 to 2009. Prior to his appointment to the federal cabinet, he served as a cabinet minister of the state of
SaxonyThe Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, including as Chief of Staff, Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice. In the federal cabinet, prior to his appointment as Minister of Defence, he served as Minister of the Interior.
Background
Thomas de Maiziere was born in
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
to the later Inspector general of the
BundeswehrThe Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
,
Ulrich de MaizièreUlrich 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...
. He graduated at the
AloisiuskollegThe Aloisiuskolleg is a co-educational, private and Catholic University-preparatory school in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany with an affiliated boarding school directed by the Jesuits. The school is named for Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. It has an excellent reputation and is considered one of the most...
in Bonn and studied law and history at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in
MünsterMünster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
and the
University of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
, he passed his first state examination in law in 1979 and his second 1982, earning his doctorate of law (Dr. jur.) in 1986.
He belongs to a noble family originally from
Maizières-lès-MetzMaizières-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...
who, as
HuguenotThe 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...
s, had fled
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for asylum in
PrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
in the late 17th century. The
Maizière familyDe Maizière is the name of an influential German family of Huguenot 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....
still attended French-language schools and Huguenot churches in Berlin until the beginning of the 20th century. His cousin
Lothar de MaizièreLothar 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....
is also a CDU politician and was the last, and only democratically elected, Premier of the
German Democratic RepublicThe German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
, who later served as Federal Minister of Special Affairs in the
KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
government. Thomas de Maizière is married to Martina de Maizière, with whom he has three children.
Political career
He worked for the Governing Mayor (Prime Minister) of Berlin (
Richard von WeizsäckerRichard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...
and
Eberhard DiepgenEberhard Diepgen is a German politician of the CDU. He studied law at the Free University of Berlin. He was mayor of West Berlin from 1984 to 1989 and a reunited Berlin from 1991 to 2001.-References:...
), before he was part of the West German delegation to negotiations on
German reunificationGerman reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. After 1990 he worked with re-establishing democratic structures in states that were part of the former
German Democratic RepublicThe German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
. He became Secretary of State in the Ministry of Culture of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in November 1990. From December 1994 to 1998 he was Chief of Staff of the Chancellery of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Cabinet minister in Saxony
He served as Chief of the Saxon Chancellery from 1999 to 2001, with the rank as a cabinet minister. From 2001 to 2002 he served as Minister of Finance of Saxony, from 2002 to 2004 Minister of Justice, and from 2004 to 2005 Minister of the Interior.
Chief of the German Chancellery
On 17 October 2005, he was nominated for membership of the
Federal GovernmentThe Cabinet of Germany is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Chancellor and the cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's organization are set down in articles 62 to 69 of the Basic Law.-Nomination:...
, as Chief of the Chancellor's Office and Federal Minister of Special Affairs in the First Cabinet Merkel. He took office on 22 November 2005 after Merkel's election by the
BundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
. In his capacity as Chief of Staff of the Chancellery, he also functioned as Deputy President of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik,
German Institute for International and Security AffairsThe Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin is a leading German think tank and the founding institution behind the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.- History, Organization and Functions of the SWP :...
.
Federal Minister of the Interior
He took office as
Federal Minister of InteriorThe Federal Ministry of the Interior is a ministry of the German federal government. Its main office is in Berlin, with a secondary seat in Bonn. The current minister of the interior is Dr...
in the Second Cabinet Merkel.
Federal Minister of Defence
On March 2, 2011, Chancellor Merkel announced that Maizière would be the successor of Federal Minister of Defence
zu GuttenbergKarl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg is a German politician of the Christian Social Union ....
, who had resigned from office the previous day. On 3 March 2011 he was appointed.
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