Ronald Pofalla

Ronald Pofalla (born 15 May 1959) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as the Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery and a Federal Minister for Special Affairs from 2009 to 2013, in the second coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. From 2017 to 2022, he was the CEO of the infrastructure department of Deutsche Bahn.[1]

Ronald Pofalla
Pofalla in 2013
Chair of the Kohlekommission
In office
6 June 2018 – 23 January 2019
Serving with Matthias Platzeck, Barbara Praetorius, Stanislaw Tillich
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Head of the Chancellery
Minister for Special Affairs
In office
28 October 2009 – 17 December 2013
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byThomas de Maizière
Succeeded byPeter Altmaier
Commissioner for the
Federal Intelligence Services
In office
28 October 2009 – 17 December 2013
ChancellorAngela Merkel
CoordinatorGünter Heiß
Preceded byThomas de Maizière
Succeeded byPeter Altmaier
General Secretary of the
Christian Democratic Union
In office
5 December 2005 – 28 October 2009
LeaderAngela Merkel
Preceded byVolker Kauder
Succeeded byHermann Gröhe
Bundestag constituencies
Member of the Bundestag
for North Rhine-Westphalia
In office
10 November 1994 – 31 December 2014
Preceded byHeinrich Seesing
Succeeded byThorsten Hoffmann (2015)
ConstituencyKleve
In office
20 December 1990 – 10 November 1994
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded bymulti-member district
ConstituencyChristian Democratic Union List
Personal details
Born (1959-05-15) 15 May 1959
Weeze, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany (now Germany)
Political partyChristian Democratic Union (1975–)
Spouse
Nina Hebisch
​
(m. 2016)​
Children1
Alma materUniversity of Cologne
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Lawyer
  • Lobbyist
Websiteronald-pofalla.de

Early life and education

Pofalla studied social pedagogy at the Fachhochschule in Kleve. After finishing with a Diplom in 1981 he studied law at the University of Cologne. In 1991 he passed the second Staatsexamen. Since that time Pofalla has been licensed to work as a lawyer.

Political career

Early beginnings

Pofalla has been a member of the CDU since 1975. At first he was engaged in the Junge Union. He was chairman of the JU in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1986 to 1992.

Member of the German Parliament, 1990–2014

During his time in parliament, Pofalla served on the Committee for the Scrutiny of Elections, Immunity and the Rules of Procedure, the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs and the Committee on Economic Affairs and Technology.

From 2004 to 2005 Pofalla was deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU's parliamentary group in the Bundestag under the leadership of Angela Merkel, and served as the Secretary General of the CDU from 2005 to 2009. In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the Christian Democrats and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2009 federal elections, he led the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on labour and social affairs; his counterpart of the FDP was Dirk Niebel.

Chief of Staff to the Chancellor, 2009–2013

After the elections, Pofalla succeeded Thomas de Maizière as Chief of Staff to Chancellor Angela Merkel. During his time in office, he was repeatedly criticized for being rude towards other representatives of the Bundestag and other members of the German government. In September 2011 he seriously insulted Wolfgang Bosbach, senior group leader of the CDU/CSU-group in the Bundestag after an in-house discussion about the enhancement of the European Financial Stability Facility.[2]

In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal elections, Pofalla was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Merkel, Horst Seehofer and Sigmar Gabriel. As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he subsequently resigned as head of the Federal Chancellery.[3]

Career in the private sector

In January 2014 it was reported that Pofalla would be joining the management Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned national rail network of Germany. He had previously worked for the company's subsidiary DB Netz between 2005 and 2009.

At Deutsche Bahn, Pofalla took up a "specially created lobbying post" said to carry compensation of more than a million euros a year.[4] His successor in the Bundestag is Thorsten Hoffmann.

After transitioning to the private sector, Pofalla was made co-chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue, a semiofficial German-Russian symposium.[5] From 2018 until 2019, he also served on the German government's so-called coal commission, which was tasked to develop a masterplan before the end of the year on how to phase-out coal and create a new economic perspective for the country's coal-mining regions.[6]

In 2022, Pofalla was appointed to the managing board of real estate developer Gröner Group.[7]

In April 2023, Pofalla was one of the 22 personal guests at the ceremony in which Angela Merkel was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Schloss Bellevue in Berlin.[8]

Other activities
Pofalla in 2018

Corporate boards
  • DEVK Rückversicherungs- und Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft, Member of the supervisory board (since 2016)[9]
  • Sparda-Bank, Member of the Advisory Board
  • KfW, Member of the supervisory board (2002-2006)

Non-profit organizations

Political positions

During his time in politics, Pofalla took an active interest in Belarus. In 2012, he publicly condemned the execution of Vladislav Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov, both 26, saying this move would further alienate Belarus from Europe. "Lukashenko thus drifts even further away from our European values," he said. "The already heavily burdened relation between Belarus and Europe will be rendered yet more difficult by this."[13]

In the context of the Ukraine crisis, Pofalla has commented that "it wasn’t clever of Barack Obama to have downgraded Russia, in connection with the Ukraine conflict, to the level of a regional power."[14]

Controversy

Pofalla caused controversy when German tabloid Bild revealed that he had bought premium Montblanc writing materials worth 3,307.61 euros for his MP office at the expense of the Bundestag in 2009; at the time, it was the highest recorded order by any parliamentarian.[15]

References
  1. Markus Balser (1 March 2022), Ex-Politiker: Ronald Pofalla gibt bei der Bahn auf Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  2. "Merkel Ally Under Fire for Profanity-Ridden Tirade". Der Spiegel.
  3. Stefan Wagstyl (14 December 2013), Germany’s SPD backs coalition with Merkel’s CDU Financial Times.
  4. "German Politician's Rush to Lobbying Brings Scorn". New York Times. 3 January 2014.
  5. John Vinocur (2 November 2015), Europe Gives Up on ‘Hope’ Wall Street Journal.
  6. Andreas Franke (6 June 2018), Germany launches commission tasked to develop coal exit masterplan S&P Global Platts.
  7. Nele Husmann (1 May 2022), Immobilienentwickler Gröner: „Wahrer Reichtum hat nichts mit Geld zu tun“ Wirtschaftswoche.
  8. Kati Degenhardt (17 April 2023), Merkels emotionaler Dank: "Er hatte Vieles auszuhalten" T-Online.
  9. 2016 Annual Report DEVK Rückversicherungs- und Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft.
  10. Board of Trustees Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP).
  11. Members of the Board of Trustees, 2018 Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex.
  12. Board of Trustees Jewish Museum Berlin.
  13. Luke Harding and Yuras Karmanau (18 March 2013), EU outraged after Belarus executes two men accused of Metro bombing The Guardian.
  14. John Vinocur (2 November 2015), Europe Gives Up on ‘Hope’ Wall Street Journal.
  15. Kate Brady (25 August 2016), German MPs expenses to be reconsidered following stationery scandal Deutsche Welle.

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