German State Secretary visits Camp Eggers (4950178605) (cropped)

Klaus-Dieter Fritsche (born 16 May 1953 in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...

) is a former German civil servant who served as State Secretary and Commissioner for the Intelligence Services in the government of

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 from 2014 until 2018. He is a member of the

Christian Social Union of Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German language, German: , CSU) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic and Conservatism in Germany, conservative List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. Having a regionalis ...

(CSU).

Early life and education

Fritsche studied law at the University of Erlangen.

Career

Fritsche became a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in 1981. From 1988 he worked for the CSU parliamentary group at 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 ...

, then based in Bonn. In 1991 he joined the Bavarian representation in Bonn. He returned to Bavaria in 1993 as chief of staff to Hermann Regensburger and, from 1995,

Günther Beckstein Günther Beckstein () (born 23 November 1943) is a German CSU politician from Bavaria and was the 17th Minister President of Bavaria from 9 October 2007 to 27 October 2008. He is well known for his outspoken views on law and order. Biography B ...

, at the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, in the government 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. It ...

Edmund Stoiber Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber (born 28 September 1941) is a German politician who served as the 16th Minister President of the States of Germany, state of Bavaria between 1993 and 2007 and chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Christian So ...

. From October 1996 Fritsche served as Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In Chancellor Merkel's first term, Fritsche served as Federal Intelligence Service coordinator at the

German Chancellery The German Chancellery (german: Bundeskanzleramt, , more faithfully translated as ''Federal Chancellery'' or ''Office of the Federal Chancellor'') is an agency serving the executive office of the chancellor of Germany, the head of the federal gov ...

from December 2005 on. In November 2009 he was appointed deputy minister (german: Staatssekretär) at the

Federal Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

under the leadership of minister

Thomas de Maizière Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière (; born 21 January 1954) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 2009 to 2011 and 2013 to 2018, as well as Federal Minister of Defence f ...

, succeeding

August Hanning August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

Later career

From 2019 until 2020, Fritsche worked as external advisor to Austrian

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Herbert Kickl Herbert Kickl (born 19 October 1968) is an Austrian politician who has been leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since June 2021. He previously served as Minister of the Interior from 2017 to 2019 and general-secretary of the FPÖ from 2 ...

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 a ...

Sebastian Kurz. Amid the

Wirecard scandal The Wirecard scandal (German: ''Wirecard-Skandal'') was a series of corrupt business practices and fraudulent financial reporting that led to the insolvency of Wirecard, a payment processor and financial services provider, headquartered in Muni ...

, media reports revealed that Fritsche helped set up a meeting with Lars-Hendrik Röller, Merkel's senior economic adviser, and senior Wirecard executives in September 2019. In 2020, Fritsche was appointed as member of German

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

manufacturing

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

Heckler & Koch's supervisory board; however, the Chancellery later vetoed the appointment.Peter Carstens (24 October 2020)
Kanzleramt verbot früherem Geheimdienstler Tätigkeit bei Heckler & Koch
'' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritsche, Klaus Christian Social Union in Bavaria politicians 1953 births Living people

Early life and education

Career

Later career

See also

References