Karl A. Lamers (born 12 February 1951, in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the

German Parliament 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 1994 until 2021. From 2010 to 2012 he was the President of the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

Education and career

After completing his Abitur in 1969, Lamers studied law at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

. He passed his First State Examination in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and obtained a doctorate in law in 1976, with a dissertation called "Representation and integration of foreign nationals in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

with special regard to suffrage – also a comparative study about local election rights in the member states of the European Communities". Subsequently, he passed the Second State Examination and became a

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Master's degree. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, th ...

at the

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Max Planck Institute for International Law, MPIL) is a legal research institute located in Heidelberg, Germany. It is operated by the Max Planck Society. The institute wa ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. Later on he became a senior

Beamter The German civil servants called ' (men, singular ', more commonly ') or ' (women, singular ') have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees (called '), who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as emp ...

at the

Landtag of Baden-Württemberg The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 election was a coalition of the All ...

, serving as the Head of the Office of the President of the Landtag. Karl A. Lamers is registered as practising lawyer in Heidelberg.

Political involvement

Lamers became a member of the Christian Democratic Union and its youth division, the

Junge Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (''Young Union of Germany'') or JU is the joint youth organisation of the two conservative German political parties, CDU and CSU. Membership is limited to individuals between 14 and 35 years of age. Junge Union c ...

(JU), in 1975. From 1981 to 1986 he acted as deputy state chairman of the Junge Union

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 ...

under its State Chairman

Günther Oettinger Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digit ...

, who later became

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

of the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Baden-Württemberg and is currently serving as European Commissioner for Energy. Since 2003, Lamers is honorary chairman of the CDU division of Heidelberg after being its chairman from 1985 to 2003 and a member of the Municipal Council of Heidelberg 1987 to 1995.

Member of Parliament

In 1994, Lamers got elected to 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 ...

for the first time by directly winning the Heidelberg constituency. In 1998 and 2002 he won a seat through his placing on the CDU Party List of Baden-Würrtemberg in Germany's mixed member proportional representation voting system. Lamers directly won his constituency again in 2005 and 2009, receiving 36,1% of the votes in 2009. Lamers was elected Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Bundestag in 2005 and is still holding this office. He is a member of the

since 1998 and was elected its president in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

on 16 November 2010. Lamers also acted as President of the

Atlantic Treaty Association The Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) is an umbrella organization which draws together political leaders, academics, military officials, and diplomats to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The ATA is an independent organization ...

from 2008 to 2014, succeeding Robert E. Hunter, who held the office from 2003 to 2008. In March 2019, Lamers announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections and resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.Christian Altmeier (7 March 2020)

''Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung''.

References

External links