Philipp Rösler (; born 24 February 1973) is a German former politician who served as federal minister of health from 2009 to 2011 and federal minister of economics and technology as well as

vice-chancellor of Germany The vice-chancellor of Germany, officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The Chancellor of Germany, chancellor is the head of government and, according to the constitution, gives thi ...

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 (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 ...

, he announced his resignation from the chairmanship. Born in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, 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 South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

(now

Sóc Trăng Province Sóc Trăng (, ) was a former province in the Mekong Delta of Southern Vietnam, with its capital in Sóc Trăng. The province occupies an area of and has a population of approximately 1,213,400. Etymology Sóc Trăng was known as Ba Xuyên du ...

, Vietnam) on 24 February 1973. He was adopted from a Roman Catholic orphanage near

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

by a German couple who already had two biological children, and brought him to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, in a plane of

children's rights Children's rights or the rights of children 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 HommesSven 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 Rhi ...

''. 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 Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Bückeburg and

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, where he graduated from high school in 1992. After training to become a

combat medic A combat medic is responsible for providing emergency medicine, 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 or illnes ...

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 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 is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

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

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 of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously ...

of Lower Saxony.

Role in federal politics

Federal Minister of Health, 2009–2011

Following the 2009 national elections, Rösler succeeded Ulla Schmidt as Federal Minister of Health in

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 ...

'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 ...

to the US, a request they agreed to. Later that year, he declined a request from his counterpart, United States Secretary of Commerce

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat from the State of Washington. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first Chinese-American governor ...

, that Germany help out with thiopental as dozens of US states were facing shortages of a drug necessary in

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

s 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 as Chairman of the FDP on 13 May 2011 and was also instated as

Vice-Chancellor of Germany The vice-chancellor of Germany, officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The Chancellor of Germany, chancellor is the head of government and, according to the constitution, gives thi ...

on 16 May 2011. On 7 June 2011, Rösler attended the state dinner hosted by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in honor 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 ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. Rösler strongly supported the presidential candidacy of

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician 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 East Germany. During the P ...

, originally proposed by the SPD and Greens, and reportedly secured his nomination by convincing his opposing coalition partner, the CDU/CSU, 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, 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 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 organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

(WEF) in Switzerland, under the leadership of chairman

Klaus Schwab Klaus Martin Schwab (; born 30 March 1938) is a German mechanical engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He acted as the WEF's chairman since founding the organisation from 1971 until 2025 when he was replaced by P ...

. 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 HNA Group Co., Ltd., was a Chinese conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, China. Founded in 2000, it was involved in numerous industries including aviation, real estate, financial services, tourism, logistics, and ...

. 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 a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

to the Swiss cantons of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...

Other activities

Corporate boards

* CV VC, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2023) * VinaCapital Ventures, chairman of the advisory board (since 2021) * Brainloop, Member of the supervisory board (since 2020) * Pure Holding, member of the board of directors (since 2020) * Arabesque S-Ray, Partner (since 2019) * Numbrs, Member of the advisory board (since 2019) * Emmacc, Member of the advisory board (since 2019) * Loc Troi Group (LT Group), Independent member of the board of directorsPhilipp Rösler

Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finland, Finnish Government of Finland, state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. It mainly focuses on the Nordic countries, Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generate ...

. * Long Anh Province Energy Company, Independent member of the board of directors *

, Member of the supervisory board (2019–2023) *

Siemens Healthineers Siemens Healthineers is a German multinational company with specializing in medical technology. It was spun off from its parent company Siemens in 2017, which retains a 75% stake. Siemens Healthineers is the parent company for several medical te ...

, Member of the supervisory board (2018–2023) * KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the supervisory board (2011–2013) *

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

, ex-officio Member of the supervisory board (2009)

Non-profit organizations

* World Vision Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020) * Constructor University, Member of the Board of Governors (since 2018) *

Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent Foundation (nonprofit), 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. The foundati ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (2017–2022) * Bertelsmann Foundation North America, Member of the Board of Directors * Green Helmets, Member of the Board of Trustees * Robert Enke Foundation, chairman of the Board of Trustees (2010–14) *

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

, 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 two twin girls. The family lived in Isernhagen before moving to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

in 2014 and, in 2017, to

Honours

Grand Officer of the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

, Portugal (3 March 2009) * Conferred an Honorary Doctoral Degree in International Relations from The University of Cambodia 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 Leaders of political parties in Germany 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 Naturalized citizens of Germany Ministers of the Lower Saxony State Government People from Sóc Trăng province