Thomas de Maizière

Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière [ də mɛzjɛʀ ] ( born January 21, 1954 in Bonn ) is a German politician ( CDU) since December 2013 and again Minister of the Interior.

Previously, he was 1990-1994 State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and 1994-1998 Head of the State Chancellery under Berndt page. Subsequently, he was from 1999 to 2001 head of the Saxon State Chancellery, 2001-2002 Saxon State Minister of Finance, 2002-2004 Saxon State Minister of Justice, and from 2004 to 2005, Saxon State Minister of the Interior. From 2005 to 2009 he was the Federal Minister for Special Tasks and Head of the Federal Chancellery. From 28 October 2009 to March 3, 2011 de Maizière was Federal Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Merkel II Then he was up to his return to the Home Office Minister of Defence.

• 7.1 Mecklenburg -Vorpommern
• 7.2 Saxony
• 7.3 Confederation

Education and work

After graduating from Aloisiuskolleg 1972 in Bonn de Maizière made ​​until 1974, first his military service as a reserve officer candidates at the Infantry Battalion 342 in Koblenz from and was discharged as an ensign of the reserve. In 1974 he was promoted to lieutenant in 1977 and lieutenant of the reserve. He made, inter alia, several military exercises at the School of Communications of the Bundeswehr.

After his military service, he graduated in law at the University of Münster and Freiburg, which he finished in 1979 with the first and 1982 with the second legal state examination. During his studies he was active in the ring of Christian Democratic Students Münster. He was then an employee of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Richard von Weizsäcker, and from 1984 by Eberhard Diepgen.

In 1986, his Doctor of rights to the work, the practice of informal proceedings the Bundeskartellamt - representation and legal classification of a hidden action at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. From 1985 to 1989 de Maizière was head of the policy unit of its Senate Chancellery of Berlin and Spokesman of the CDU group in the Berlin House of Representatives. 1989 graduated from de Maizière the Young Leaders Program at the American Council on Germany, a partner project of the German think tank Atlantic Bridge and the American Council on Germany for emerging political and economic leaders. In 1990 he worked with the building of the Office of the Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and was also a member of the negotiating team for the German - German Unification Treaty.

He has been a member since 2003 the Presidium of the German Protestant Church Congress. Since October 2010, de Maizière is an Honorary Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law Faculty of the Technical University of Dresden.

Family

The Huguenot family de Maizière, landed gentry from near Metz, fled in the 17th century to Brandenburg, where her Elector Frederick William offered refuge. The surname derives from the origin of the family, the community Maizières at Metz in Lorraine.

De Maizière is the son of artist Eva de Maizière and the former Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Ulrich de Maizière. His older brother Andreas de Maizière is Bank Manager. In addition, he is a cousin of the CDU politician Lothar de Maizière, the last prime minister of the GDR.

De Maizière is Protestant. He lives in Dresden, is married and has three children.

Party

It was established in 1971 as a student member of the CDU.

De Maizière had in 1990 his cousin Lothar de Maizière, the first freely elected prime minister of the GDR, recommended after the parliamentary elections, Angela Merkel take as a press assistant in his team, in which he was then also taken up as a consultant.

Member of Parliament

De Maizière was from 2004 until his appointment as head of the Federal ex-officio member of the Saxon Parliament. In the constituency 51 ( Bautzen I) it was 47.9 % of the vote directly elected Member of Parliament. De Maizière went to No. 1 on the country list Saxony for the parliamentary elections in 2009 and applied for a direct mandate in the Bundestag constituency 156 ( Meissen ), where he was elected with 45.2%. In the general election in 2013 he was able to increase its share of the vote to 53.6 %.

Public offices

In November 1990, de Maizière was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture of the Federal State of Mecklenburg -Vorpommern. Subsequently, he worked from December 1994 Head of the State of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern under Prime Minister Berndt page. After the CDU resigned from the government after the 1998 state elections, de Maizière was moved into temporary retirement.

On 26 October 1999 he took over the management of the Saxon State in the Prime Minister conducted by Kurt Biedenkopf Saxon State Government. On 30 January 2001 he was appointed after the dismissal of Georg Milbradt the Saxon State Minister of Finance. After Milbradt had been elected in the office of prime minister, succeeding Kurt Biedenkopf, took over de Maizière on May 2, 2002, the line of the Saxonian State Ministry of Justice. After the state elections in 2004, he was appointed on 11 November 2004 as the Saxon State Minister of the Interior.

After the 2005 federal election de Maizière was on 22 November 2005 appointed as Federal Minister for Special Tasks and Head of the Federal Chancellery in led by Chancellor Angela Merkel Federal Government (Cabinet Merkel I). In this role, de Maizière was also the Commissioner of the Federal Government for the intelligence services.

After the 2009 parliamentary elections, he was Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Merkel II

On 9 May 2010 de Maizière represented in Brussels the diseased Federal Finance Minister Schaeuble during the discussions in the Council of Economy and Finance for the euro crisis and the negotiations on the European Stability Mechanism.

On 3 March 2011 Thomas de Maizière was appointed as the official successor to the retiring Karl -Theodor zu Guttenberg, the Defence Minister. In May 2011, he announced plans for the reduction of the Bundeswehr. During his tenure, the prepared by his predecessor, Karl -Theodor zu Guttenberg abolition of compulsory military service was completed. Due to the statement in February 2013, the German soldiers were greedy for recognition, he was accused of not placing enough behind the soldiers.

On 17 December 2013, was re-appointed Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Merkel III.

German media report on 23 February 2014 that 230 German politicians, decision makers and business representatives are intercepted by the U.S. Secret Service, including de Maizière. For this, the NSA had stationed 297 employees in Germany.

Public policy positions and criticism

Internet and monitoring

In August 2009, de Maizière demanded stricter " rules of conduct " for the Internet. He told the Rheinische Post:

"Must we not protect people from denunciation, disparagement or dubious transactions such as in civil law? Similarly as in the financial markets we need medium traffic rules on the Internet. Otherwise we will experience there atrocities that go beyond every imagination. Much goes there way, not only national. "

The comments were met with the other parties to criticism and were " superfluous " rejected as or considered to be a precursor to a censor.

In April 2010, declared de Maizière, in the digital world there should be no taboo zones into which no outsider can venturing into more. In this context, he explained further that the state must, as he in the analog world ausstelle identity cards, the Internet can guarantee a reliable identification of the individual user.

In general, however, he warned against demonizing the Internet, especially since there the same laws apply as in the real world and it is therefore not above the law.

In April 2014 de Maizière announced that "the cooperation between the intelligence services of the United States, Britain and Germany [ ... ] essential " is. You should " not be damaged ", not even by the Committee of Inquiry into NSA affair, which is to investigate the mass -monitoring Tung German citizens by the secret services.

Terrorism

In November 2010, de Maizière was as Minister of the Interior issued a terror warning for Germany. He relied on " concrete investigative approaches and concrete tracks" and stressed that there was "no reason for hysteria " give. He spoke at the same time with the chairman of the Interior Committee in the Bundestag Wolfgang Bosbach against giving to exploit this situation for tighter laws.

Future missions abroad

There are also after the withdrawal from Afghanistan for de Maizière " no taboos " for new foreign missions. Instead, de Maizière think " even if our immediate national security interests may not be touched at first sight ", the German army could be used in future abroad. In addition, de Maizière called for the purchase and use of armed drones in August 2012.

Committee of Inquiry into National Socialist Underground ( NSU )

In September 2012, it was announced that Defence Minister de Maizière knew several months ago, the existence of a MAD file. He had not passed on to the committee of inquiry this knowledge.

Euro - Hawk affair

In May 2013 de Maizière finished the Euro Hawk program of the Bundeswehr. The Euro Hawk it was a variant of the Global Hawk drone whose sensors came from the European defense group EADS. The Euro Hawk SIGINT should take over all tasks. The Euro Hawk program was set up by de Maizière because the drone had not been certified for civil aviation automatic anti- collision system and therefore the EU's air safety authority would certify the drone only for the flight over uninhabited regions. Legally, only a military certification would have been. The subsequent installation of an anti- collision system would have additional cost estimated by the Luftwaffe 600 million euros. The developed reconnaissance sensors to be installed in another aircraft or a drone. On June 5, 2013 de Maizière was questioned by the Defence Committee of the German Bundestag for the setting of the program, where he declared to have been in 2012 for the first time informed of the full scope of the problems, " abstract" on the admission problems and only in May 2013. Here, he figured that " decisions at State level " took place, what was " wrong " was. The State Stéphane Beemelmans and Rüdiger Wolf, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Volker Wieker, the Air Force Inspector Aarne Kreuzinger - Janik and other executives in the Ministry had been informed already on 8 February 2012 that the additional cost of admission for aviation now estimated at 600 million euros would.

On drones Project Global Hawk by NATO and Alliance Ground Surveillance ( AGS ) for battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance, to which Germany will participate with 480 million euros, de Maizière held in June 2013, although there exist the same compliance issues for aviation as in Euro Hawk.

On June 10, 2013 the SPD, Greens and Left Party announced that the application for a committee of inquiry in the German Bundestag to clarify the allegations against de Maizière. On 26 June 2013, the Euro Hawk Investigative Committee began its work. On August 26, 2013, the Euro Hawk inquiry committee finished its work.

Cabinets

Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania

• Cabinet Gomolka
• Cabinet Page I - Page II

Saxony

• Cabinet Biedenkopf III
• Cabinet Milbradt I - II Milbradt

Waistband

• Cabinet Merkel I - II Merkel - Merkel III

Awards (excerpt)

• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2006)
• Norwegian Order of Merit (2007)
• Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of Merit (2009)