Frank Schäffler (born 22 December 1968) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from 2005 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2025.

Early life and career

Schäffler was born 1968 in the German town of

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district ...

and studied

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. He later worked as an insurance salesman.

Political career

Schäffler entered the liberal FDP in 1987 and first served as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 until 2013. During that time, he was a member of the Finance Committee. In 2011, Schäffler led a group of fellow eurosceptic MPs from the FDP who collected enough signatures to force a non-binding inner-party referendum on the question of whether the party should oppose the creation of the €500 billion

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

and instead take a much tougher line opposing bail-outs for debt-strapped members of the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...

. The referendum was widely seen as destabilizing the coalition government under the leadership of

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

amid the

European debt crisis The euro area crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis, European debt crisis, or European sovereign debt crisis, was a multi-year debt crisis and financial crisis in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until, in Greece, 2018. The e ...

. In the run-up to the vote, he became the target of attacks from the party's leadership, including from foreign minister

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 perso ...

and FDP Secretary General

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (; born 7 January 1979) is a German former politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who was the Federal Minister of Finance from 2021 until his dismissal in 2024 during the 2024 German government crisis. Servi ...

, who described Schäffler as "Germany's

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

"; Lindner subsequently resigned from his position. In 2012, Schäffler co-founded the Alliance Against the ESM. In 2014, Schäffler co-founded Prometheus — Das Freiheitsinstitut, a member of the

Atlas Network Atlas Network, formerly known as Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a non-governmental, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and Conserva ...

. In the

2017 elections Africa *2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017 *2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017 *2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017 *2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017 *2017 Republic of the Congo parliamentary electi ...

, Schäffler was re-elected and joined the parliament again. In parliament, he first served on the Finance Committee again from 2018 until 2021 before moving to the Budget Committee and the Committee on Digitization. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a deputy chairman of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Schäffler was part of his party's delegation in the working group on European affairs, co-chaired by

Udo Bullmann Udo Bullmann (born 8 June 1956) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1999. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), part of the Party of European Socialists. He has been r ...

Franziska Brantner Franziska Katharina Brantner (born 24 August 1979) is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 2013. Since 2024, she has also been serving as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, along ...

and

Nicola Beer Nicola Beer (born 23 January 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a vice president of the European Investment Bank since 2024, under the leadership of president Nadia Calviño. Earl ...

. In 2023, Schäffler announced his candidacy to challenge

Lukas Köhler Lukas Köhler (born 22 August 1986) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria from 2017 to 2024. Early life and education Born in München, Bavaria, Köhler pa ...

as deputy chair of the FDP parliamentary group; in an internal vote, however, he ultimately lost against Köhler.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Bitcoin Group SE, Member of the Supervisory Board (-2018)

Non-profit organizations

Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund The Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund () is a German federal fund to manage the financial endowment for long-term nuclear waste storage sites. The fund is organised as a trust and falls into the remit of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Ene ...

(KENFO), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) *

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (), better known by its abbreviation BaFin, is Germany's integrated financial regulatory authority. Since 2014, it has been Germany's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. ...

(BaFin), Member of the Administrative Council (since 2018) * Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV), Member of the Advisory Board on Financial Markets * Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation, Member

Political positions

Schäffler is considered to be a

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

. He denies the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a nearly unanimous scientific consensus that the Earth has been consistently warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, that the rate of recent warming is largely unprecedented, and that this warming is mainly the result o ...

.http://www.frankschaeffler.deich-bin-ein-klimaskeptiker/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaffler, Frank 1968 births Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Living people Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) Bielefeld University alumni