Reinhard Göhner

Reinhard Göhner (born January 16, 1953 in Bünde , East Westphalia ) is a German employer functionary, lobbyist and former politician ( CDU ). From 1991 to 1993 he was Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Justice and from 1993 to 1994 at the Federal Ministry of Economics . From 1996 to 2016 he was General Manager of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA).

Life and work

After graduating from the Friedrich List School in Herford in 1972 , Göhner studied law , sociology and economics at Bielefeld University , which he completed in 1977 with the first state examination in law. In 1979 he received his doctorate as Dr. jur. at Bielefeld University with the thesis "Democratic decision-making in private-law interest groups" . After completing his legal clerkship , he also passed the second state examination in 1981. Göhner has been a lawyer since 1981 and has also been a specialist lawyer for labor law since 1988 .

Reinhard Göhner is married and has four children.

Political party

Göhner joined the CDU and the Young Union during his school days . From 1978 to 1986 he was state chairman of the Junge Union in Westphalia-Lippe .

From 1992 to 1996 Göhner was a member of the federal executive committee of the CDU and from 1991 to 1994 chairman of the basic program commission of the CDU.

MP

Göhner was a member of the Herford district council from 1979 to 1990 .

In 1983 he became a member of the German Bundestag . From 1986 to 1990 he was chairman of the committee for the environment, nature conservation and reactor safety. From 1994 to 1998 Göhner was legal counsel in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group .

Reinhard Göhner has always entered the Bundestag via the state list of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Göhner resigned from the Bundestag on July 6, 2007. As a reason for his decision, he cited the assumption of the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the Paderborn management consultancy CentConsult, in which he himself holds a stake. For him, Cajus Julius Caesar moved up to the Bundestag via the NRW state list .

Public offices

On January 24, 1991 Göhner was used as Parliamentary Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Justice in by Chancellor Helmut Kohl led government appointed. On January 22, 1993, he changed to the Federal Minister of Economics in the same function . After the general election in 1994 , Göhner left the government on November 17, 1994.

Lobbyist and sideline

In addition to his work as a member of the Bundestag, Göhner was always managing director of various employers' associations . From 1982 to 1990 he was managing director of the professional association of serial furniture companies and from 1994 to 1996 general manager of the association of the German upholstered furniture industry, the association of the Westphalian wood industry and plastics processing and the professional association of serial furniture companies.

Since October 1, 1996, he has been Managing Director of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA). Göhner saw himself as a role model for others with his dual function as a member of parliament and association functionary. He runs an association that represents the entire German employers, he told the newspaper Die WELT in view of the fact that the coalition wants to significantly tighten the penal provisions for bribery of parliamentarians.

Criticism of his sideline employment was occasionally expressed in public. The former BDI boss Hans-Olaf Henkel asked him to resign from one of the offices: “At the BDA you saw the impossible balancing act that Göhner had to perform on issues such as the anti-discrimination law: the CDU was in favor, the BDA against it and he dived in the vote, ”said Henkel in an interview with the online edition of Stern magazine published on July 25, 2006.

Göhner avoided a “balancing act” when he simply stayed away from the vote on the sales tax increase in the German Bundestag and asked for an excuse. However, it caused great confusion as his voting card was still in the urn. Despite this irregularity, the vote was not repeated.

Reinhard Göhner is chairman of the supervisory board of the CentConsult consulting group based in Paderborn .

Reinhard Göhner fulfills an important media-political function as chairman of the program committee and editor-in-chief of ZDF .

cabinet

• Cabinet Kohl IV

Web links

• Biography at the German Bundestag
• Biography on the official homepage of the BDA (PDF; 22 kB)
• Article in the Berliner Zeitung of December 2, 2003 about criticism of Göhner's connection between lobbying and parliamentary activities
• Article of the Spiegel from July 23, 2006 about criticism of Göhner's connection between lobbying and parliamentary activities
• Article ( memento of February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) of the FTD of July 23, 2006
• Article by Stern , interview with Hans-Olaf Henkel about political sideline activities
• Article in the Bild newspaper about Göhner's voting behavior on the sales tax increase in the German Bundestag