Paul Krüger (born 7 March 1950) is a German engineer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He most notably served as Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology from 1993 to 1994 under

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

. He has also been a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

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 1990 to 2001, and

Lord Mayor Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...

Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg (, Low German ''Niegenbramborg'', both lit. ''New Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg'') is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban c ...

from 2001 to 2015.

Early life

Krüger was born on 7 March 1950 in

Güstrow Güstrow (; ) is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is capital of the Rostock (district), Rostock district; Rostock itself is a district-free city and regiopolis. It has a population of 28,999 (2020) and is the sevent ...

, which was then part of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, as the son of a farmer and housewife. He attended a

Polytechnic Secondary School The polytechnic secondary school, officially ''ten-class general educational polytechnic secondary school'', abbreviation POS, pronounced P-O-S, was the standard type of school in the Education in East Germany, school system of East Germany. The ...

, graduating in 1966. After graduating he began an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

as a

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, threading and turning, with tools that are applied to the w ...

operator in

, which he completed with in 1968. He decided to switch careers in 1969, attending Hochschule Wismar and studying

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

, completing his studies there in 1973 with a diploma in engineering. At the same school he started pursuing his higher level degrees, in 1975 graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering and in 1986 a Doctorate in Engineering. From 1973 to 1990 he worked as an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

in a mechanical engineering company called VEB Lebensmittelgütermaschinenbau in Neubrandenburg, and in 1980 became a group leader for organization and software development in the company. He joined politics by joining the Christian Democratic Union of East Germany, and upon the dissolution of East Germany became a member of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

in 1990. In 1990 he also became a CDU district executive in Neubrandenburg and a part of the CDU state executive committee of Mecklenburg.

Political career

Volkshammer and Bundestag

Krüger was elected to the

Volkskammer The Volkskammer (, "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it. The Volkskammer was initia ...

as part of district 11 (Neubrandenburg) in the

1990 East German general election Elections in Germany#German Democratic Republic, General elections were held in East Germany on 18 March 1990. They were the first free elections in the region since November 1932 German federal election, 1932, and were the first and only free el ...

for a few months before the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

which led to its dissolution in October 1990. During those few months he was part of the Presidium of the Volkskammer and Managing Director of the CDU/DA parliamentary group. He was elected to the

in the

1990 German federal election The 1990 German federal election was held in recently united Germany on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Bundestag, within the regular time of nearly four years after the January 1987 West German federal election. Due to the acc ...

direktmandat In Germany, a direktmandat ( ''English'': direct mandate) is a parliamentary seat that is won by the candidate who receives the most votes in a constituency in a legislative election. In the mixed-member proportional representation system used in ...

for Neubrandenburg - Altentreptow - Waren Röbel with 42.7% of the vote. He was again elected to that constituency in the

1994 German federal election The 1994 German federal election was held in Germany on 16 October 1994 to elect the members of the 13th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor in a narrowly ...

with 43.1% of the vote, and in this session was a deputy chairman of the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties ( ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian democratic and conservative political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social U ...

parliamentary group. He had previously been Chairman of the Working Group of the

Treuhandanstalt The (, " Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/ privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification ...

from March to May 1993. From 1998 to 2001 he was instead elected by

state list The State List or List-II is a list of 61 items. Initially there were 66 items in the list in Schedule Seven to the Constitution of India. The legislative section is divided into three lists: the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent Lis ...

for

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in population; it covers an are ...

. He formally

resigned Resignation is the formal act of relinquishing or vacating one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or ...

on 14 August 2001 in order to become

of Neubrandenburg. The last committee he served on was the Committee for the Affairs of the New States, which was one of the

standing committees A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

in that Bundestag period, as chairman of it since 1998.

Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology

On 13 May 1993, Krüger was appointed Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology in

's cabinet. Krüger said there was a "crisis not seen since 1945" that Germany was falling behind the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in research and development and that funding for this was being rapidly cut. To combat this, he introduced funding for

genetic research Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar workin ...

and to artificially produce

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

, like those to prevent

hemophilia Haemophilia (British English), or hemophilia (American English) (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a long ...

. He also focused on

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

, saying that there could be the responsible and safe usage of plants, as exemplified by the Niederaichbach Nuclear Power Plant where it was dismantled and no longer as radioactive. Another important thing in his term was the

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

infrastructure, where he pushed for the end of a monopoly, and said that with this telecommunications will contribute to a large percentage of the

gross national product The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...

. In particular, he tried to help science in the new federal states in the east, for example encouraging the building of

Wendelstein 7-X The Wendelstein 7-X (abbreviated W7-X) reactor is an experimental stellarator built in Greifswald, Germany, by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and completed in October 2015.Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...

. He left office on 17 November 1994.

Mayor of Neubrandenburg

He became

in May 2001. In the elections to become mayor, he had narrowly lost the majority against Thorsten Koplin ( PDS) in the first round, which required a second round of voting which he won. He was re-elected in 2008 against Hans-Joachim Schröder. He decided not to run for re-election in March 2015, as he said he would step back at the age of 65. After the economic collapse of the city following reunification, he attached importance to

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

development based on the people already there. An important dispute that occurred during his time as mayor was not extending the contract with the housing company Neuwoges, and after it was reported he made this decision by

Nordkurier ''Nordkurier'' is a newspaper published in Neubrandenburg, Germany. The paper is the continuation of ''Freie Erde'' which was published in the German Democratic Republic. History and profile ''Nordkurier'' was first published on 2 April 1990 as ...

there was a dispute between him and the city council and the CDU district executive, who accused him of "know-it-allism". Also of importance was the steep decline in population in the city, which was later rectified. From 2003 until 2017 he was deputy state chairman of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Personal life

Krüger is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and is married with two children. He, along with

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 ...

, was one of the few East German politicians in politics at the time and so they often relied on moral support from one another. Thus, they became lifelong friends.

Honours and awards

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

, 1st class

References

1950 births Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Members of the Bundestag 1990–1994 Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 People from Güstrow Hochschule Wismar Christian Democratic Union (East Germany) members Members of the Volkskammer Government ministers of Germany German Catholics {{DEFAULTSORT:Krüger, Paul Living people