Hans-Joachim Fuchtel (born 13 February 1952) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

from the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

from 1987 until 2021. From 2018 to 2021 he also served as Parliamentary State Secretary for Food and Agriculture in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

of Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

Political career

Fuchtel first became a member of the Bundestag in the 1987 German federal election, representing the

Calw Calw (; previously pronounced and sometimes spelled ''Kalb'' accordingly) is a town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany, capital and largest town of the district Calw. It is located in the Northern Black Forest and is a ...

district. For several terms, he served on the Budget Committee (1994-2009) and the Audit Committee (2002-2009). In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on the annual budget of the

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs The Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs (german: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, ), abbreviated BMAS) is a federal ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany headed by the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs a ...

, among others. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the German delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 1991 until 2009. In Chancellor Angela Merkel's second coalition government from 2009 to 2013, Fuchtel served (alongside Ralf Brauksiepe) as one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs under minister

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding suc ...

. In addition to this role, he was appointed as the Chancellor's Personal Envoy to the German-Greek Assembly (DGV) in 2011. In the negotiations to form a '' Grand Coalition'' of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

(SPD) following the 2013 federal elections, he was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on labor policy, led by von der Leyen and

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April ...

. In Merkel's

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

cabinet from 2013 to 2017, Fuchtel served (alongside Thomas Silberhorn as one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development under minister Gerd Müller. In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on foreign policy, led by von der Leyen, Gerd Müller and

Sigmar Gabriel Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

. In May 2020, Fuchtel announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...

(ADB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2013-2018) *

Inter-American Investment Corporation The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an International financial institutions, international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development finan ...

(IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2013-2018) *

German Investment Corporation Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) and a subsidiary of KfW Group. It was founded in Cologne in September 1962 as a federally owned company by the former Federal President Walter ...

(DEG), Ex-Officio Chairman of the supervisory board (2013-2018)

Political positions

In June 2017, Fuchtel voted against Germany's introduction of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

.Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle
''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...

'', 30 June 2017.

References

External links