Philipp Rösler (born 24 February 1973) is a German physician and former politician who served as
federal minister of health from 2009–2011 and
federal minister of economics and technology as well as
vice-chancellor of Germany
The vice-chancellor of Germany, unofficially the vice-chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (), officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The chancellor is the head of governm ...
from 2011 to 2013.
Rösler was Chairman of the liberal
Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2011 to 2013. Following the
2013 federal election in which the FDP left 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 ...
, he announced his resignation from the chairmanship. Born in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, Rösler was the first cabinet minister and vice-chancellor of Asian background in Germany.
Before entering politics, Rösler was a cardiothoracic surgeon.
Early life and education
Rösler was born in Khánh Hung, Ba Xuyên Province, in
South Vietnam (now
Sóc Trăng Province, Vietnam) on 24 February 1973.
He was adopted from a Roman Catholic orphanage near
Saigon by a German couple who already had two biological children, and brought him to
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
, West Germany, in a plane of
children's rights
Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. charitable humanitarian organization
Terre des Hommes
Terre des hommes, also Terre des Hommes (''Land of People'' or ''Land of Men''), is an international children's rights charitable humanitarian umbrella organization under the aegis of the International Federation of Terre des Hommes (TDHIF), wit ...
[Sven Gösmann (17 September 2011)]
Der nette Herr Rösler
''Rheinische Post
''Rheinische Post'' is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1946 by the ''Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH'' company, and headquartered in Düsseldorf. The Post is especially dominant in the western part of North Rhine- ...
''. at the age of nine months.
He was raised by his adoptive father, who is a career military officer, after the couple separated when he was four years old.
Rösler grew up in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Bückeburg
Bückeburg (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bückeborg'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It is located in the district of Schaumburg close to the northern slopes of the Weserbergland ridge. Population: 21,0 ...
and
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, where he graduated from high school in 1992.
After training to become a
combat medic
A combat medic, or healthcare specialist, is responsible for providing emergency medical treatment at a point of wounding in a combat or training environment, as well as primary care and health protection and evacuation from a point of injury ...
in the German (the Federal Defence Force), Rösler was accepted to study medicine at the
Hanover Medical School. Following this, he continued his education at the ''Bundeswehr'' hospital in Hamburg. He earned his Doctorate in
cardiothoracic surgery
Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs ( lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal str ...
in 2002.
[ He left the service as a (a rank for German medical officers equivalent to an army captain) in 2003.
]
Political career
State politics
Rösler joined the FDP and its political youth organization, the Young Liberals, in 1992.[ He was secretary of the FDP in the state of ]Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
from 2000 to 2004 and served as chairman of the FDP parliamentary group in the Lower Saxon state assembly from 2003. From 2001 to 2006, Rösler was a member in the regional assembly of Hanover (district), where he was also deputy chairman of the parliamentary group. In May 2005, he was elected an observer of the federal FDP executive committee. He received 95% of the votes, the best result of that party conference. At the state party conference in March 2006, Rösler was elected as chairman of the Lower Saxon FDP with 96.4% of the votes; he succeeded Walter Hirche, who had decided to step down after twelve years at the helm. In April 2008, Rösler was confirmed as the Lower Saxon FDP party chairman, receiving 95% of the votes.
At the federal party conference in June 2007, Rösler was re-elected as a member of the party executive committee. The following month, he was elected to stand as his party's main candidate in the Lower Saxon state election in January 2008. In that election, he received 10.9% of the votes in his local constituency, . On 18 February 2008, Rösler was appointed State Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport as well as Deputy Minister-President in the cabinet of 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 ...
Christian Wulff
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (; born 1959) is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the ...
of Lower Saxony.
Role in federal politics
Federal Minister of Health, 2009–2011
Following the 2009 national elections, Rösler succeeded Ulla Schmidt
Ursula "Ulla" Schmidt (born 13 June 1949) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 2001 to 2009 she was Federal Minister of Health in the German Government. Between 2013 and 2017, she served as Vice-President ...
as Federal Minister of Health in 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 ...
's second cabinet.
Over the course of 2010, Rösler pushed through changes to the way drugs are priced on the German market as part of his wider-ranging health-care reform plans. In January 2011, he asked German pharmaceutical companies to refrain from delivering anesthetic sodium thiopental
Sodium thiopental, also known as Sodium Pentothal (a trademark of Abbott Laboratories), thiopental, thiopentone, or Trapanal (also a trademark), is a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate general anesthetic. It is the thiobarbiturate analog of pe ...
to the US, a request they agreed to. Later that year, he declined a request from his counterpart, United States Secretary of Commerce
The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
Gary Locke, that Germany help out with thiopental as dozens of US states were facing shortages of a drug necessary in lethal injections administered to death-row prisoners.
Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, 2011–2013
Rösler succeeded Rainer Brüderle as Federal Minister of Economics and Technology on 12 May 2011 and Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person ...
as Chairman of the FDP on 13 May 2011 and was also instated as Vice-Chancellor of Germany
The vice-chancellor of Germany, unofficially the vice-chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (), officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The chancellor is the head of governm ...
on 16 May 2011.
On 7 June 2011, Rösler attended the state dinner
A state banquet is an official banquet hosted by the head of state in his or her official residence for another head of state, or sometimes head of government, and other guests. Usually as part of a state visit or diplomatic conference, it is h ...
hosted by President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
in honor 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 ...
at the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
.
Rösler strongly supported the presidential candidacy of Joachim Gauck
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...
, originally proposed by the SPD and Greens, and reportedly secured his nomination by convincing his opposing coalition partner, the CDU/CSU
CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...
, to back the nomination. That was seen as a step to demonstrate the independence of his party which was dramatically trailing in polls.
As a consequence of the FDP's defeat in the 2013 state elections in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, Rösler offered to step down as party chairman. The leadership decided that he would remain but not lead the party in the federal elections, instead acting in a team with Rainer Brüderle as top candidate. Following the defeat of 2013 federal elections, when the FDP was for first time in its history voted out of the Bundestag, he stepped down as chairman and retired from politics. Christian Lindner
Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Mem ...
became his successor as leader of the FDP.
Life after politics
In January 2014, Rösler became a member of the managing board and Head of the Centre for Regional Strategies of the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
(WEF) in Switzerland, under the leadership of chairman Klaus Schwab
Klaus Martin Schwab (; born 30 March 1938) is a German engineer, economist and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has acted as the WEF's chairman since founding the organisation in 1971.
Life
Schwab was born to Eugen Wilhelm Schw ...
. From late 2017 until early 2019, Rösler served as chief executive officer of New York-based Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc., the largest shareholder of HNA Group.
In 2020, Rösler founded Consessor AG, a consulting firm based in Zug which advises companies on strategic management and internationalization.
In September 2021, Rösler was appointed as the Honorary Consul
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
of Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
to the Swiss cantons of Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
and Zug
, neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri
, twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina)
Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...
.
Other activities
Corporate boards
* Brainloop, Member of the supervisory board (since 2020)
* Arabesque S-Ray, Partner (since 2019)
* Numbrs, Member of the advisory board (since 2019)
* Emmacc, Member of the advisory board (since 2019)
* Fortum
Fortum Oyj is a Finnish state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. In addition to Finland, it focuses on Germany and other countries in Central Europe, Great Britain, Russia and the Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, inc ...
, Member of the supervisory board (since 2019)
* Siemens Healthineers
Siemens Healthineers AG (formerly Siemens Healthcare, Siemens Medical Solutions, Siemens Medical Systems) is a German medical device company. It is the parent company for several medical technology companies and is headquartered in Erlangen, Germ ...
, Member of the supervisory board (since 2018)
* KfW
The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national d ...
, Ex-Officio Member of the supervisory board (2011–13)
* Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
, ex-officio Member of the supervisory board (2009)
* VinaCapital Ventures, chairman of the Advisory Board
Non-profit organizations
* Jacobs University Bremen
Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor' ...
, Member of the Board of Governors (since 2018)
* Bertelsmann Stiftung
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself ...
, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2017)
* Bertelsmann Foundation North America
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and e ...
, Member of the Board of Directors
* Green Helmets, Member of the Board of Trustees
* World Vision Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees
* Robert Enke Foundation, chairman of the Board of Trustees (2010–14)
* ZDF, Member of the Television Board (2012–13)
Personal life
Rösler is a Roman Catholic, and a member of the General Conference of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK). He has been married to Wiebke Lauterbach, also a physician, since 2002. The couple has twin girls, Grietje and Gesche, born in 2008. The family lived in Isernhagen before moving to Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
in 2014 and, in 2017, to Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
.
Honours
*
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit, Portugal (3 March 2009)
* Conferred an Honorary Doctoral Degree in International Relations from The University of Cambodia
The University of Cambodia (often referred to as UC for short; km, សាកលវិទ្យាល័យកម្ពុជា, ''Sakâlvĭtyéalai Kămpŭchéa'') is a private university located on Northbridge Road in Sen Sok District, Phnom P ...
in 2015
References
External links
*
Federal Minister of Economics and Technology – Dr. Philipp Rösler
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosler, Philipp
1973 births
Living people
Economy ministers of Germany
Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians
German adoptees
German Army personnel
Vietnamese emigrants to Germany
German Roman Catholics
Government ministers of Germany
Health ministers of Germany
Members of the Landtag of Lower Saxony
Vice-Chancellors of Germany
German people of Vietnamese descent
Ministers of the Lower Saxony State Government
People from Sóc Trăng province