Philipp Amthor | |
|---|---|
 Philipp Amthor, 2021 | |
| Member of theBundestag forMecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II | |
| Assumed office 25 March 2025 | |
| In office 26 October 2021 – 25 March 2025 | |
| In office 24 October 2017 – 26 October 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Matthias Lietz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1992-11-10)10 November 1992 (age 32) Ueckermünde, Germany |
| Political party | CDU (since 2008) |
| Alma mater | University of Greifswald |
Philipp Amthor (born 10 November 1992) is a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been amember of theBundestag since the2017 German federal election.
In addition to his work in parliament, Amthor has been serving as aParliamentary State Secretary at theFederal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation in thegovernment ofChancellorFriedrich Merz since 2025.[1] From 2018 to 2020, he worked as a lobbyist for the now inactive IT company Augustus Intelligence.[2]
Amthor was born in 1992 inUeckermünde and grew up inTorgelow. He studied law at theUniversity of Greifswald, on a scholarship of theKonrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). From 2017 to 2020, he worked as a research associate at the Berlin office ofWhite & Case.[3]
Amthor announced 2019 he is working on a law dissertation.[4]
In December 2019, he became a member of the Roman Catholic Church by being baptized.[5]
Amthor joined the CDU in 2008. In the2017 elections he became member of the Bundestag as the directly elected MP for theMecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II constituency.[6] In parliament, he has since been serving on the Committee on Internal Affairs (since 2018) and the Committee on European Affairs (2018–2021).[7] Since the2021 elections, Amthor has been serving as his parliamentary group's spokesperson for state modernization.[8]
Since 2018, Amthor has been thetreasurer of theYoung Union (JU), making him part of the organization's leadership around chairmanTilman Kuban.[citation needed]
Following the resignation ofVincent Kokert as chairman of the CDU inMecklenburg-Vorpommern, Amthor announced his candidacy for the role.[9] Amid growing criticism of his lobbying activities on behalf of a private company, he declared in June 2020 that he would not run for the party's leadership in the state anymore.[10]
From 2018 to 2022, he served astreasurer on the federal executive committee of theYoung Union.[11] Likewise, since 2018, he has served as treasurer on the executive committee of the parliamentary group of small and medium-sized businesses of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, as well as being a member of the federal working group of Christian Democratic lawyers. Since 2019, he has been chairman of the Young Group and deputy chairman of the Group of Expellees (Gruppe der Vertriebenen). In addition, he ran in electoral district 9,Ueckermünde, on list position one for the district councilVorpommern-Greifswald and has been its honorary member since 2019.[12]
Amthor is also a member of the state executive committee of the Mittelstands-Union Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and a member of the federal executive committee of the East and Central German Association of the CDU. Until June 2020, Amthor was a member of the 1st investigative committee of the 19th legislative period of the German Bundestag.
Since 2021, Amthor has been a member of the Modern State Commission of the CDU Basic Program Commission.
In March 2021, Amthor was elected to first place on the list of the CDUMecklenburg-Vorpommern for the 2021 federal election.[13] In July 2021, a photo of Amthor taken during the horse festival Szczecin Lagoon caused a stir. In it, Amthor was seen with two men, one of whom was wearing a T-shirt with the inscription "Solidarity withUrsula Haverbeck". Via Instagram, Amthor later apologized for the photo posted by one of the men, noting that he would not have taken the photo if he had noticed the inscription on the T-shirt.[14] As in the 2017 election, he competed in theMecklenburgische Seenplatte I - Vorpommern-Greifswald II Bundestag constituency, achieving 20.7% of the first-past-the-post vote in his constituency and thus falling short of the direct mandate; he nevertheless entered the 20th German Bundestag via the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern CDU state list.[15]
Within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Amthor has since held the office ofspokesman for state organization and state modernization and is chairman of theMecklenburg-Vorpommern state group and a member of the parliamentary group's executive committee.[16] He is a full member of the Committee on the Interior and Homeland and a deputy member of the Joint Committee, Committee on Election Scrutiny, Immunity and Rules of Procedure and the Legal Affairs Committee.
On 14 May 2022, Amthor was elected to succeedFranz-Robert Liskow as chairman of the CDU district association ofVorpommern-Greifswald.[17]
In 2018 and 2019, the physician Wolfgang Haupt recruited more than 30 private investors from Europe and the USA with the help of political contacts, especially in conservative circles, who invested more than USD 35 million in his start-up. The basis was a company valuation of more than 250 million dollars, although the company was not able to show one own marketable product.[18]
In 2020, German news magazineDer Spiegel published a story detailed Amthor's lobbying efforts with chancellorAngela Merkel for the American-German company. In April 2021, the company, which among other things wanted to develop AI software for face andspeech recognition, applied for bankruptcy protection proceedings in the USA (Chapter 11). A few months later Haupt died in a helicopter crash inBaden-Württemberg, Germany.[18]
Within the CDU, Amthor considers himself to be part of the conservative wing.[19] In the Bundestag, he explained, quotingHarald Martenstein, that for him ″right″ does not necessarily mean ″far-right″ and that thepolitical right has its legitimate place in a democracy.[20][21] He took a stand againstgender mainstreaming,abortion and the introduction ofSame-sex marriage in Germany.[22][23] Amthor has clearly positioned himself against theAlternative for Germany (AfD) on various occasions.[24][25]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats'leadership election in 2018, Amthor publicly endorsedJens Spahn to succeed Merkel as the party's chair.[26] He later endorsedFriedrich Merz asAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's successor at the party's2021 leadership election.[27]
Amthor is considered part of the conservative wing of the CDU,[28] having come out againstgender mainstreaming,abortion and thelegalisation of same-sex marriage.[29][30]
Amthor's eccentric personality, dated speech and conservative political positions, in contrast to his youthful age, have led to him being dubbed "the oldest 26-year-old in Germany",[31] and has made him the subject of significant public mockery andonline memes. He is particularly known for his frequent use of the wordSchabernack,[32][non-primary source needed] a word that approximately translates to "jokery" or "tomfoolery".
Media related toPhilipp Amthor at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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