Roderich Kiesewetter | |
|---|---|
 Kiesewetter in 2024 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-09-11)11 September 1963 (age 62) |
| Political party | CDU (since 1981) |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician |
Roderich Kiesewetter (born 11 September 1963) is a formerBundeswehr general staff officer and politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the GermanBundestag since 2009.[1]
After passing the GermanAbitur examination in 1982, Kiesewetter joined the German military artillery forces. From 1983 until 1986 he studied economics and organizational sciences at theBundeswehr University Munich and theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[2] From 1995 to 1997 he attended the German General Staff Course at theFührungsakademie der Bundeswehr in Hamburg, being awarded theHeusinger prize for the best German graduate.[3]
Having finished the studies in Hamburg, Kiesewetter was posted at theEuropean Council, theNATO Headquarters inBrussels andMons as well as in the German Ministry of Defence. Besides that he also used to be commander of a German army battalion and took part in different military missions abroad. From 2006 to 2009 he was head of the offices of the then Chiefs of Staff of theSupreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe,Rainer Schuwirth andKarl-Heinz Lather inSHAPE/Mons, Belgium. In 2009 he had a post at the Rapid Reaction Forces Operations Command (Kommando operative Führung Eingreifkräfte), until he was elected member of parliament on 17 October 2009 and left the army as acolonel.[citation needed]
Kiesewetter has been a member of the GermanBundestag since the2009 federal elections.
In theBundestag, Kiesewetter is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as well as deputy chairman of the Sub-Committee for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. In his parliamentary group he serves as spokesman for disarmament and on civilian crisis prevention.[2] Within the Committee on Foreign Affairs, he is his group'srapporteur on the Balkans, the Mediterranean and Maghreb countries; he previously also covered energy policy.
In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2013 federal elections, Kiesewetter was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense policy and development cooperation, led byThomas de Maizière andFrank-Walter Steinmeier. Between 2014 and 2015, Kiesewetter represented the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in a crossparty committee headed by former defense ministerVolker Rühe to review the country's parliamentary rules on military deployments.[4] From April 2014, he served as member of theGerman Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal; he resigned from the body in January 2015, citing an increased need to focus on his duties in the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[5]
In addition to his committee assignments, Kiesewetter is a member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations withBosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2019, he has been a member of the German delegation to theFranco-German Parliamentary Assembly.[6]
In February 2013, Kiesewetter accompaniedPresident of the BundestagNorbert Lammert to Morocco for meetings with the president of the House of Representatives,Karim Ghellab, thePresident of the Assembly of Councillors,Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, Prime MinisterAbdelilah Benkirane, and Foreign MinisterSaad-Eddine El Othmani. In early 2015, he joined Germany'sForeign MinisterFrank-Walter Steinmeier on official trips toMorocco,Tunisia andAlgeria; later that year, he also accompanied him on a trip toCuba; it was the first time a German foreign minister had visited the country since German reunification in 1990.[7][8]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’leadership election in 2018, Kiesewetter publicly endorsedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.[9] He later endorsedNorbert Röttgen as Kramp-Karrenbauer's successor at the party’s2021 leadership election.[10]
In September 2020, Kiesewetter was one of 15 members of his parliamentary group who joined Röttgen in writing anopen letter toMinister of the InteriorHorst Seehofer which called on Germany and other EU counties to take in 5000 immigrants who were left without shelter after fires gutted the overcrowdedMória Reception and Identification Centre on the Greek island ofLesbos.[11]
Ahead of the2021 national elections, Kiesewetter endorsedArmin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeedChancellorAngela Merkel.[12]
In January 2025, Kiesewetter was one of 12 CDU lawmakers who opted not to back a draft law on tightening immigration policy sponsored by their own leaderFriedrich Merz, who had pushed for the law despite warnings from party colleagues that he risked being tarnished with the charge of voting alongside the far-rightAlternative for Germany.[13][14]
In 2012, Kiesewetter andAndreas Schockenhoff proposed in a strategy paper a reform of the requirement of parliamentary approval when sendingBundeswehr soldiers abroad, suggesting instead to introduce a yearly, general parliamentary decision on German participation in integrated military structures, such asAWACS,EU Battlegroups and theNATO Response Force (NRF). The government would then have a right to deploy, while the Bundestag would have the right to recall the troops.[15]
In 2014, Kiesewetter said efforts to lock in a "no-spy" agreement with the U.S. contradict the need to follow threatening developments in friendly states.[16] Later that year, he called onEdward Snowden to speak with the German parliament's investigative committee onNSA surveillance activities in Germany.[17]
In August 2012, Kiesewetter was one of 124 members of the Bundestag to sign a letter that was sent to the Russian ambassador to Germany,Vladimir Grinin, expressing concern over the trial against the three members ofPussy riot. "Being held in detention for months and the threat of lengthy punishment are draconian and disproportionate," the lawmakers said in the letter. "In a secular and pluralist state, peaceful artistic acts – even if they can be seen as provocative – must not lead to the accusation of serious criminal acts that lead to lengthy prison terms."[18][19]
Holding a special interest in the Balkans, Kiesewetter has in the past called for a stronger German and European commitment to the region, arguing that "Russia is coming into the region as a competitor."[20] He also argues that Berlin should respond to positive changes in the region, such as the election ofKlaus Johannis, the reform-minded Romanian president, who "deserves support".[20]
In a 2014 article inVanity Fair, Kiesewetter is quoted on theRussian military intervention in Ukraine: "We think he has a hidden strategy to disturb and weaken the E.U. to cause it to split."[21] On aUnited Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union, he later argued "it would be a success for Russia" and that "it cannot be in Germany's national interest for a British exit to weaken the EU and strengthen Germany."[22]
Days after the2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage Kiesewetter argued that Russia was behind the attack.[23] In July and August 2023 he explicitly accused Russia of having perpetrated the attack.[24][25]
WhenDer Spiegel uncovered the German government's controversial decision to export up to 270Leopard 2A7+ tanks toSaudi Arabia in October 2011, Kiesewetter in a parliamentary debate put forward a version of events presentingIsrael as the driving force behind the decision, claiming that "Israel not only wanted the sale of these tanks, but explicitly supported it."[26]
WhenIsraeli Foreign MinisterAvigdor Lieberman called on Germany to lead a control mission for theRafah checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in 2014, Kiesewetter cautioned that "having German soldiers on the ground is not an option because that would be unacceptable for Israel."[27]
| Other offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the Reservist Association of Deutsche Bundeswehr 2011–2016 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
