Tilman Moritz Kuban (born 26 May 1987) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German

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 Commons ...

since 2021. He has also been the chairman of the CDU’s youth organisation, the

Young Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (''Young Union of Germany'') or JU is the joint youth organisation of the two conservative Germany, German Political party, political parties, Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU and Christian Social Union in Ba ...

(JU), since 2019.

Early life and education

Kuban was born 1987 in the West German town of

Langenhagen Langenhagen ( Eastphalian: ''Langenhogen'') is a town in the Hanover district of Lower Saxony, Germany. History From 1866 to 1868 Robert Koch worked in Langenhagen. On June 18, 1972, Red Army Faction terrorist Ulrike Meinhof was arrested in La ...

and studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Osnabrück A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Before entering politics, he worked as a

talent scout In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout ...

for football club

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

Political career

Kuban entered the CDU in 2007 and was elected chairman of the JU in 2019, succeeding

Paul Ziemiak Paul Ziemiak (born 6 September 1985 as ''Paweł Ziemiak'') is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since the 2017 federal election. In addition to his pa ...

. In November 2016, Kuban announced that he would succeed Maria Flachsbarth and run for a parliamentary seat in the 2021 national elections, representing the

Hannover-Land II Hannover-Land II is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 47. It is lo ...

district. In parliament, Kuban has since been serving on the Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on European Affairs. In this capacity, he is 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 Euro ...

on Europe’s relations with Ukraine.

Political positions

In 2020, Kuban declared that the CDU was “resolved to not work together with the AfD or The Left, whether directly or indirectly." Ahead of the Christian Democrats’

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

in 2021, Kuban publicly endorsed

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician, serving as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 31 January 2022 and as leader of the Union parliamentary group as well as the Leader of ...

to succeed

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from ...

as the party's chair. For the 2021 national elections, he later endorsed

Markus Söder Markus Thomas Theodor Söder (born 5 January 1967) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Bavaria since 2018 and Leader of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) since 2019. Background, education and military service Söd ...

as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

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 Oppo ...

.Kanzlerkandidatur der Union: Machtkampf auf der Zielgeraden
'' Tagesschau'', April 19, 2021.

References

Living people 1987 births Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians 21st-century German politicians Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 {{Germany-CDU-politician-stub