Volker Kauder

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Volker Kauder (2015)

Volker Kauder (born September 3, 1949 in Hoffenheim ) is a German politician ( CDU ) and lawyer .

He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1990 and was chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group from 2005 to 2018, making him the longest in office in the group's history. From January to December 2005 Kauder was Secretary General of the CDU.

Life

education and profession

After graduating from high school in 1969 at Hegau-Gymnasium in Singen (Hohentwiel) , Volker Kauder initially did military service with the NBC defense force in Immendingen and Sonthofen and left as an ensign in the reserve. He then completed a law degree at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg from 1971 , which he completed in 1975 with the first state examination in law. After his legal clerkship , he passed the second state examination in 1977 and joined the administration of the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1978 . From 1980 to 1990 he was the first state official and social affairs officer for the Tuttlingen district under District Administrator Hans Volle .

Political party

Kauder at the CDU party conference in 2012

Kauder became a member of the Junge Union in 1966 at the age of 17 and remained so until 1984. From 1971 to 1973 he was chairman of the JU district association of Konstanz and from 1973 to 1976 honorary managing director and district board member of the Junge Union Südbaden.

From 1975 to 1991 Kauder was press spokesman and member of the board of the CDU South Baden. From 1984 to 1986 he was chairman of the CDU city association Tuttlingen and from 1985 to 1999 chairman of the CDU district association Tuttlingen . In 1991 Kauder became general secretary of the CDU in Baden-Württemberg. With the resignation of Prime Minister Erwin Teufel in April 2005, he gave up this office.

Kauder is repeatedly referred to as Angela Merkel's “right-hand man” . After Laurenz Meyer resigned on December 22, 2004, she designated him for the office of Secretary General of the CDU in Germany, to which he was elected on January 25, 2005.

On August 28, 2005 Kauder was confirmed as Secretary General with 97.7% of the valid votes. After his election as chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Ronald Pofalla took over the post of CDU general secretary on December 1, 2005, initially provisionally and later officially.

In addition to his work in the CDU, Kauder is also an honorary member of the CSU .

MP

Volker Kauder in the German Bundestag , 2014

Kauder has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1990 . From 2002 to January 2005 he was the first parliamentary director of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group .

On November 21, 2005 he was elected chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group with 93.3% of the votes cast. In the regular election one year after the Bundestag election, Kauder achieved a result of 92.1% on September 26, 2006. Since January 13, 2015, Kauder was the longest-serving chairman of the Union faction. Kauder has always entered the Bundestag as a directly elected member of the Rottweil-Tuttlingen constituency . In the 2009 Bundestag election , he achieved 48.1% of the first votes . The day after the election, he was re-elected as parliamentary group leader with over 96% of the vote. In the 2013 federal election he was again able to defend his direct mandate in his constituency with 57.8%. After the disappointing result for the Union in the 2017 Bundestag election , in which Kauder was able to defend his direct mandate with 43%, he was re-elected as parliamentary group leader with only 77.3% of the votes cast. On September 25, 2018, he lost a vote against Ralph Brinkhaus in the regular election of the parliamentary group chairman with 112 to 125 votes with two abstentions.

Kauder is one of 12 members of the electoral committee in the Bundestag, which appointed half of the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court by 2015 or has been proposing them to the plenary session since 2015.

He maintains a constituency office together with the member of the European Parliament ( MEP ) Andreas Schwab and the CDU member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg ( MdL ) Stefan Teufel in Rottweil and another constituency office together with the CDU member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg Guido Wolf in the rooms of the Tuttlingen train station .

In September 2019, Kauder announced that he would not run for the Bundestag again.

religiousness

Volker Kauder was confirmed as a youth in the Evangelical Church in Baden and shows sympathy for the evangelical movement and the liturgical orientation of the Catholic Church. The world counts him among the evangelicals, whereby Kauder hears this term, in words of the world , "not so much about himself", because "his faith [is] not adequately described by the term 'evangelical'". In his words, "edification, admonition, and comfort " are the main pillars of the evangelical. Furthermore, the following are central to him: “The Bible as God's direct word, the mission to mission , the great importance of the life of Jesus for everyday life , the sinfulness of man, which can only be redeemed through an act of grace from God and through the sacrificial death of Jesus . ”Kauder explained, among other things, that he had also found the strength of faith in the Evangelicals and that he felt comfortable with the Evangelical Alliance . It is “impressive” that the Evangelical Alliance manages to bring together thousands of professing believers at events. It is important to take this “power of faith” very seriously, and he is glad to be able to participate in it. Georg Brunnhuber said of Kauder: “Kauder is the most Catholic Protestant I know. When it comes to C , it becomes a steamroller . "

In 2009 he received a private audience with Benedict XVI. ; a photo of this encounter then hung behind Kauder's desk.

Because of his commitment to persecuted Christians, in September 2010 he received the Golden Compass media award from the evangelically oriented Christian media association KEP .

In 2014, Pope Franziskus awarded Kauder the Papal Order of Gregory for his commitment to persecuted Christians .

Other engagement

In Tuttlingen, which belongs to his constituency in the Bundestag, he founded a support association for the benefit of the mentally ill. In addition, he was chairman of the federal association “ Action Mentally Ill ” for four years . Since 2008 he has been the patron of the fundraising campaign “We make school. Take part. ” Of the St. Franziskus Heiligenbronn Foundation .

Volker Kauder was the city sponsor for the city initiative "Tuttlinger help Africa" ​​as part of the aid project We Help Africa .

Private

Volker Kauder's parents were Germans ( Danube Swabians ) who were expelled from their hometown of Nova Pazova in Yugoslavia after the Second World War . His brother Siegfried Kauder was also a member of the German Bundestag until September 22, 2013. Both grew up in Singen am Hohentwiel, where their father, who was honorary city councilor and later district councilor, worked as a secondary school teacher and then as rector.

In 1976, Volker Kauder married Elisabeth Biechele, the daughter of Hermann Biechele, a member of the Bundestag for many years in Constance .

Political positions and criticism

Nuclear power

Within the CDU, Volker Kauder was seen as an opponent of Norbert Röttgen who was in favor of nuclear power . In autumn 2010, Kauder was one of the most important proponents of extending the life of German nuclear power plants , alongside economic politician Michael Fuchs , known as "Atom-Fuchs".

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster , he said - in contrast to other leading Union nuclear power proponents - that it was a "mistake" to stage a race for the longest running times in autumn 2010 and thus to turn a concept for a nuclear revival into a nuclear revival do.

corruption

Kauder rejects the proposal for a law against corruption among members of parliament , including the new initiative (spring 2013) by his brother, the Chairman of the Legal Committee, Siegfried Kauder .

Referendums

Kauder is also opposed to the introduction of direct democracy in the form of popular initiatives, referendums and referendums at the federal level, since, in his opinion, the Federal Republic has shown that its representative democracy is successful. Kauder described the CDU Economic Council's proposal to clarify the nuclear phase-out by means of a referendum as "wrong track" and pointed out that the CDU Economic Council would then also have to accept referenda, for example on minimum wages.

Arms exports

Volker Kauder is criticized for supporting the Heckler & Koch company’s weapons exports and helping with the processing of orders. The weekly newspaper Die Zeit calls Kauder a “weighty advocate” of the profitable, but highly indebted arms manufacturer who is based in his constituency of Rottweil ( Baden-Württemberg ) and against whom the public prosecutor's office investigated and finally brought charges for bribery of public officials. According to the main shareholder Andreas Heeschen , Kauder “kept holding hands over us”. A connection between donations by the company (70,000 euros in the years 2001 to 2011) to the CDU and a commitment by Kauder for Heckler & Koch is denied by the company. Kauder said he took care of all companies in his constituency, but was not for sale.

In the course of the lawsuit against u. a. two managing directors of Heckler & Koch in 2018 because of illegal arms exports to Mexico , it became known that the CDU district association Rottweil had received 10,000 euros from the group as a donation. According to a report by Report Mainz , three weeks after the transfer, the then managing director of Heckler & Koch wrote to Volker Kauder and asked him to help the company get a long-awaited export license to Mexico.

Christian values

Kauder regularly uses Christian values ​​as the basis of argument in the presentation of his political positions. In an interview for the Working Group of Christian Publicists , Kauder stated that when difficult decisions are made, he is "grateful for this access to the Father in Heaven" and that "man as the image of God" should not be put up for discussion because human dignity is neither from society nor from society politics, but come from God.

In the most varied of contexts, Kauder repeatedly referred to “our Christian-Western tradition”. As part of the conservatism debate within the CDU, he called for the Christian image of man to continue to be the focus of their actions, instead of discussing whether the party is adequately cultivating its conservative roots.

Kauder is strictly against demands to recognize Islam in Germany as a religious community with equal rights. In October 2010, he stated in the Bild newspaper that this was going “in the completely wrong direction”. He demanded from Muslims a greater willingness to recognize the values ​​of the Basic Law as a yardstick for living together in Germany, and explained in this context: "The Basic Law, which is based on our Christian-Jewish tradition, cannot be relativized by anything, especially not by an Islam, who represents Sharia law and leads to the oppression of women. ”In an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel , Kauder replied to the question“ Does Islam belong to Germany? ”with the statement“ No. Muslims belong to Germany, Islam does not. What belongs to us must be formative, identity-creating. Islam is not. "

In August 2011, Kauder criticized the churches in Germany by accusing them of a lack of missionary work : “The church has a missionary mandate, but there is too little to be seen of it.” He said that, in his view, the churches “could definitely preach the word of God intensify a little. [...] We should not be upset that so many Muslims go to mosques, but that so few Christians go to church. "

Persecution of Christians

Kauder advocates persecuted Christians, primarily in Islamic countries. In this context, he stated, among other things, that sanctions would not help. "Development aid should rather be used specifically to promote Christian projects in countries where Christians are under pressure."

In 2011 Kauder criticized the Turkish government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's attitude towards Christians. Among other things, he declared: "Anyone who deals with religious minorities like this government in Turkey does not need to reproach others." He could not accept if Erdogan came to Germany and made allegations about integration issues. Just as Turks are allowed to build their religious houses in Germany, “we expect Christians in Turkey to be allowed to build their churches. There can be no compromises ".

blasphemy

In 2000, Kauder supported a draft law that provided for the deletion of a constituent element in Section 166 of the Criminal Code (" blasphemy paragraph ") ("... which is suitable for disrupting the public peace.") And thereby tightening it. In 2013, in the discussion about Pakistani Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy, he demanded : "The blasphemy laws that contradict the sense of justice must be removed from the country's law books as soon as possible."

Same-sex unions

In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau in December 2010, Kauder spoke out against the right of adoption for homosexual couples on the grounds that he “don't believe that children want to grow up in a homosexual partnership”. Kauder's position on this question was linked in some media to his proximity to the Evangelical Evangelical Alliance .

Even after the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of May 2013 on the splitting of spouses, Kauder continued to rule out equality between marriage and same-sex partnerships. At a parliamentary group meeting, for example, he "pointed out to great applause that gay marriage does not exist for us." When the Bundestag decided to introduce marriage for same-sex partners in 2017 , Kauder voted against it.

Sexual Criminal Law

In September 2013, the chairwoman of the Greens, Claudia Roth , criticized Kauder for having voted in the German Bundestag in 1997 against the criminalization of marital rape .

abortion

On the subject of abortion , Kauder said: "The only case where I accept abortion is after a rape ". Kauder repeatedly sent greetings to participants in the annual March for Life demonstration .

Preimplantation Diagnostics

Kauder categorically rejects the pre-implantation diagnostic tools . From his point of view, human life begins with the fusion of egg and sperm cell , "because this process creates something completely new". After that there is no more decisive leap in quality - after that there will be "only quantitative developments". Kauder calls for a general ban on pre-implantation diagnostics, which is subject to penalties, as this "almost inevitably" leads to selections.

"Beer Ambassador"

His statement at the Berlin Oktoberfest 2010 "Two or three wheat beers a day, they just have to be" caused a sensation and was criticized as "not helpful in the fight against alcohol abuse".

In August 2011, Kauder's attitude to alcohol was criticized again in the NDR documentary "Drinking along is considered normal". Kauder had previously been appointed beer ambassador for another year after 2010 by the German Brewers' Association and said: “I want to advertise this German beer in the next twelve months. [...] I am convinced that it has become an unculture that still water hangs in so many glasses in our country in the evening - I am of the opinion that something must be going on in the glass too! "

Lobbying for the tobacco industry

Kauder always blocked the tobacco advertising ban initiated by the grand coalition in 2016, to which Germany committed itself to the World Health Organization in an agreement in 2004 that it would introduce it by 2010 by not having the bill submitted to the German Bundestag for a vote . As early as May 2016, he had spoken of an “out” for the law at a Junge Union party congress. Kauder was therefore accused of intensive lobbying for the tobacco industry from various sources. Kauder himself defended his opinion, which was distant from the majority, saying that "in a free country there should also be free competition and communication between producers and consumers about legal products."

Awards

Publications

as a co-author

  • So that you have hope: Politics under the sign of the "C" , Verlag der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Sankt Augustin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941904-46-0 .
  • Frei: Courage: pulpit speeches on the Reformation and freedom , Verlag der Stiftung St. Matthäus, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9809943-7-8 .
  • Shaping changing values: Acting well in society and the economy , ed. by Brun-Hagen Hennerkes and George Augustin, Verlag Herder , 4th edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-451-30618-1 .

as (co) editor

  • Parliamentary group in action: organization and working methods , CDU-CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Bonn 2004.
  • Opportunities for everyone: The perspective of the rising society , Herder, Freiburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-451-30162-9 .
  • Persecuted Christians: Commitment to Religious Freedom , SCM Hänssler , 2nd edition, Holzgerlingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-7751-5418-5 .

Essays

  • Bundestag election: the CDU is ready! , in: Axel Balzer, Marvin Geilich, Shamim Rafat (eds.): Politics as a brand - Political mediation between communication and staging , Lit-Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8146-6 , pp. 194-201
  • Religious Freedom Policy . On the importance of a right to change religion, in: Communio 43 (2014) 224-232.
  • The role of religions in the world , in: kreuz-und-quer.de, 23 January 2017.

literature

  • Dorothéa Frangopoulos-Blank: "Damned to Together": Rhetoric in the grand coalition: arguments with Volker Kauder and Peter Struck , Büchner-Verlag, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-941310-09-4 .

Web links

Commons : Volker Kauder  - Collection of Images
Commons : Volker Kauder  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Volker Kauder  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statement at the CSU party congress on November 20, 2015, around 4:48 p.m., in Munich
  2. ↑ Claus Peter Kosfeld: Kauder is now the record holder. Parliament, January 19, 2015, archived from the original on August 10, 2015 ; accessed on August 21, 2017 .
  3. ^ Kauder remains chairman of the CDU and CSU parliamentary groups. www.merkur-online.de, September 29, 2009, accessed on March 9, 2010 .
  4. ↑ marf./dpa: Kauder overthrown as leader of the Union. In: FAZ.net . September 25, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  5. ^ Members of the electoral committee. (No longer available online.) Bundestag.de, archived from the original on August 26, 2016 ; Retrieved August 26, 2016 .
  6. ↑ asa / dpa : Kauder is not running again for the Bundestag. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , September 20, 2019, accessed on September 23, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mariam Lau : Evangelicals as a power in German politics. Welt Online , August 11, 2009, accessed January 20, 2016 .
  8. ^ "The CDU is not a church" , pro-medienmagazin.de, 23 November 2011
  9. ^ Rosemarie Arnold: "Golden Compass" media prize awarded. Giessener Zeitung, archived from the original on October 6, 2010 ; Retrieved October 6, 2010 .
  10. ↑ http://www.pro-medienmagazin.de/journalismus.html?&news%5Baction%5D=detail&news%5Bid%5D=3285%5D , advocate for lived faith, September 29, 2010, accessed on September 30, 2010
  11. ↑ Evangelical Media Prize for Volker Kauder , idea.de, message from September 2, 2010.
  12. ^ Order of Gregorius for CDU politicians , Vatican Radio , June 4, 2014
  13. ^ VIII. Flight, displacement, annihilation, integration. In: donauschwaben-bayern.de
  14. ↑ I wanted to become the ringmaster ... Volker Kauder, accessed on March 9, 2010 .
  15. ↑ "In the Union parliamentary group it was said that the dispute between parliamentary group chairman Kauder and Röttgen in particular threatened to strain the work on future energy concepts." FAZ, March 16, 2011
  16. ↑ zeit.de, April 12, 2011 The split core of the Union - The energy transition divides the Union: The Environment Minister wants more money for the restructuring - and meets with resistance in the parliamentary group
  17. ↑ zeit.de and Tagesspiegel May 28, 2011
  18. ^ Law against corruption of parliamentarians: slowed down by one's own brother , by Robert Roßmann , Süddeutsche , April 8, 2013
  19. ^ DIE WELT: Greens: Debate on nationwide referendums continues . In: THE WORLD . June 27, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed March 24, 2018]).
  20. ↑ Referendums on nuclear phase-out ?: "CDU Economic Council on the wrong track" . In: FAZ.NET . May 18, 2011, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 24, 2018]).
  21. ↑ Volker Kauder - A man with two faces, by Thomas Seiterich in Publik-Forum.de of August 27, 2012 ( Memento of December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ Article “ Planet of Arms ” in Die Zeit , No. 19 of May 3, 2007, pp. 17, 18 and 20. Written by Alexander Bühler and Kerstin Kohlenberg.
  23. ^ Daily newspaper Taz : Search at Heckler and Koch. German weapons for the drug war (from October 22, 2010)
  24. ↑ detektor.fm, December 14, 2011: Armaments company Heckler & Koch: Party donations against arms supply contracts?
  25. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung of December 17, 2011, p. 5
  26. ^ A party donation with specific ulterior motives , stuttgarter-nachrichten.de, December 9, 2011
  27. ↑ Markus Dettmer, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister , Barbara Schmid, Christoph Schult, Gabor Steingart: General against will . In: Der Spiegel . No. 53 , 2004, p. 24 ( online - December 27, 2004 ).
  28. ^ Andreas Müller: Justice checks party donation from arms company. Stuttgarter Zeitung, November 11, 2011, p. 6
  29. ↑ tagesschau.de: Bribery affair at Heckler & Koch? Retrieved May 22, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Ursula von der Leyen and the religious fanatics , Telepolis, August 2, 2010
  31. ↑ z. B. Radio Paradiso has to continue broadcasting , tagesspiegel.de, June 2, 2010
  32. ↑ parliamentary group leader Kauder: The "C" in the party name is more relevant than ever , Abendblatt.de, 25 September 2010
  33. ↑ cf. z. B. De Maizière: Islam has a different status , faz.net, October 8, 2010
  34. ↑ René Pfister, Christoph Schwennicke: SPIEGEL-TALK-That hurts . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 2011, p. 25-27 ( Online - May 7, 2011 ).
  35. ^ Kauder reads the riot act in churches , sueddeutsche.de, August 24, 2011
  36. ↑ cf. z. B. Kauder in the fight against the persecution of Christians , tagesspiegel.de, September 6, 2011
  37. ↑ z. B. Praeses Schneider: Consistently demanding religious freedom , evangelisch.de, January 4, 2011
  38. ^ "Suddenly German is being spoken in Europe", welt.de, November 15, 2011 (accessed December 11, 2011)
  39. ↑ Printed matter 14/4558. (PDF) German Bundestag , November 7, 2000, accessed on March 26, 2014 .
  40. ↑ Do not accept injustice in Pakistan. cducsu.de , July 23, 2013, accessed on March 26, 2014 .
  41. ^ "Children do not want homosexual parents" ( Memento of February 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on Frankfurter Rundschau online, December 19, 2010, accessed on December 21, 2010
  42. ^ The religious imposition , taz.de, December 21, 2010
  43. ^ According to BVG judgment: Union wants equal tax treatment for gay couples , Stern.de, June 7, 2013
  44. ^ Bundestag, roll call: marriage for persons of the same sex, June 30, 2017
  45. ^ FAZ: Roth accuses Union of hypocrisy , from September 17, 2013
  46. ^ Demo by anti-abortion opponents: Greetings from the CDU , taz.de from September 22, 2013; accessed on September 28, 2018.
  47. ↑ Strange Alliance March for Life ( Memento from September 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), fr-online from September 23, 2018; accessed on September 28, 2018
  48. ↑ Ralf Beste, Dirk Kurbjuweit : SPIEGEL TALK - Islam should Europeanize . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 2011, p. 26-28 ( Online - Jan. 17, 2011 ).
  49. ↑ Christian Wiermer: Kauder beer confession. In: Berliner Kurier . September 17, 2010, accessed August 19, 2015 .
  50. ↑ NDR documentation: Drinking along is considered normal, broadcast on August 15, 2011
  51. ↑ Advertising for Glimstengel should be over soon . In: https://www.merkur.de . April 20, 2016 ( merkur.de [accessed February 17, 2017]).
  52. ↑ "Children are gold dust for the tobacco industry" , Claus Hecking, Spiegel Online, April 23, 2018
  53. ↑ Saarbrücker Zeitung: SPD attacks Union for blocking the tobacco advertising ban. Retrieved February 17, 2017 .
  54. ↑ Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup, editor DAZ.online: Union shakes the planned tobacco advertising ban . In: DAZ.online . July 12, 2016 ( online [accessed February 17, 2017]).
  55. ↑ Daniel Baumann: The blocker is gone. Tobacco opponents are hoping for a new CDU franchise peak. In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 9, 2018, p. 15
  56. ↑ Dispute over tobacco advertising ban - Smoke more beautifully on German advertising pillars , Claus Hecking, Spiegel Online, March 7, 2017
  57. ^ High Catholic honor for Protestant Kauder , kath.net, message from May 30, 2014.
  58. ↑ Volker Kauder receives the Order of the Knights of Malta , vatikan.diplo.de, notification from February 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Kauder, Volker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Hoffenheim