Hermann Gröhe | |
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| Federal Minister of Health | |
| In office 17 December 2013 – 14 March 2018 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Daniel Bahr |
| Succeeded by | Jens Spahn |
| General Secretary of theChristian Democratic Union | |
| In office 28 October 2009 – 17 December 2013 | |
| Leader | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Ronald Pofalla |
| Succeeded by | Peter Tauber |
| Minister of State for the Federal Chancellery | |
| In office 1 October 2008 – 28 October 2009 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Hildegard Müller |
| Succeeded by | Eckart von Klaeden |
| Member of theBundestag forNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 10 November 1994 – 23 February 2025 | |
| Succeeded by | Carl-Philipp Sassenrath[1] |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | Gottfried Hermann Gröhe (1961-02-25)25 February 1961 (age 64) |
| Political party | CDU |
| Alma mater | University of Cologne |
Gottfried Hermann Gröhe (born 25 February 1961) is a German lawyer and politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who served asMinister of Health in thethird cabinet ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2013 until 2018.
Gröhe finished law school at theUniversity of Cologne and was a research assistant at the university from 1987 to 1993. He also worked as a trainee lawyer at a local court in Cologne from 1991 until 1993. He has been a licensed lawyer since 1997.[2]
Gröhe was active member ofJunge Union (JU) the youth organization of CDU which he joined as a schoolboy 1975. He led the JU as federal chairman from 1989 till 1994.
Becoming a member of CDU in 1977, Gröhe has been a member of theGerman Bundestag since the1994 elections, representing theNeuss I constituency. Between 1998 and 2005, he was his parliamentary group's spokesperson on human rights and humanitarian aid. He subsequently served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2005 until 2008.
From 2008 until 2009, Gröhe briefly served as Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2009 federal elections, he was a member of the working group on economic affairs and energy, led byKarl-Theodor zu Guttenberg andRainer Brüderle.
As successor ofRonald Pofalla, Gröhe was secretary general of the CDU 2009–2013;[2] serving as the campaign manager in the2013 elections.[3] He was credited with marshallingAngela Merkel’s electoral victory that year, the party's best result sinceGerman reunification in1990.[4] In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the elections, Gröhe was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Merkel,Horst Seehofer andSigmar Gabriel.
Following the formation of thethird cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Gröhe took office asFederal Minister of Health. His deputies were Ingrid Fischbach andAnnette Widmann-Mauz.
In October 2014, Gröhe's elderly care reform bill, which is supposed to better fit the individual needs of those in care and expected to cost the government a further 1.2 billion euro ($1.5 billion), was passed by the Bundestag.[5]
In December 2014, Gröhe was surprisingly contested byJens Spahn for a place on the CDU's ruling council, in a move that was widely seen as crystallizing the generational tensions within the party. Spahn's election bid was backed by the then 72-year-old finance minister,Wolfgang Schäuble.[6] Shortly before the vote at the annual CDU party conference, Gröhe withdrew his candidacy and Spahn was elected.[7]
During his time in office, Gröhe also focused heavily onglobal health issues. Alongside his colleagueGerd Müller, he travelled toGhana andLiberia right after theWest African Ebola virus epidemic in 2015.[8] That same year, he accompanied Merkel when she spoke at the opening of the annualWorld Health Assembly in Geneva on the need for reforming theWorld Health Organization (WHO) to ensure there is prompt response to health emergencies.[9] As part of Germany'sG7 presidency in 2015, he brought together G7 Health Ministers to adopt a declaration addressingantimicrobial resistance (AMR).
In March 2016, Gröhe was appointed byUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon to the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which was co-chaired by presidentsFrançois Hollande ofFrance andJacob Zuma ofSouth Africa.[10] He later led Germany's delegation to the2016 High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in New York.
Ahead of the2017 elections, Gröhe was elected to lead his party's campaign in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.[11] In the negotiations to form afourth coalition government under Merkel, he led the working group on health policy, alongsideMalu Dreyer andGeorg Nüßlein.[12]
From March 2018, Gröhe served as deputy chairman of theCDU/CSU parliamentary group under the leadership ofVolker Kauder (2017–2018),Ralph Brinkhaus (2018–2022) andFriedrich Merz (2022–2025). In this capacity, he oversaw the group's initiatives on social affairs and development policy. He was also appointed to the Pension Commission of theFederal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, a body mandated to draft recommendations for Germany'sold-age pension system.[13]
In July 2024, Gröhe announced that he would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[14]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats'leadership election in 2018, he publicly endorsedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.[19] For the2021 leadership election, he later endorsedArmin Laschet.[20]
Addressing aUnited Nations "interfaith" meeting in 2008, Gröhe defended theright to convert to another faith, a right not recognized in someMuslim countries; he called it "unacceptable that up until now laws in some countries threaten those who want to convert with thedeath penalty."[21]
After an 18-month-old boy died ofmeasles in Berlin in 2015, Gröhe warned publicly that "those who refuse to vaccinate their children endanger not only them but others, threatening serious health problems."[22]
In June 2017, Gröhe voted against Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[23]
In April 2020, Gröhe co-signed – alongside around 50 other members of his parliamentary group – a letter toPresident of the European CommissionUrsula von der Leyen which called on the European Union to take in children who were living in migrant camps across Greece.[24][25]
Gröhe is married with former hospital administrator[26] Heidi Oldenkott-Gröhe; they have three sons and one daughter. He is aProtestant.[2]
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