Klaus-Peter Willsch

Klaus-Peter Willsch (28 February 1961, Bad Schwalbach) is a German politician of the CDU party and member of the Bundestag, representing Rheingau-Taunus – Limburg.

Klaus-Peter Willsch
Member of the Bundestag
Assumed office
1998
Personal details
Born (1961-02-28) 28 February 1961
Bad Schwalbach, West Germany
(now Germany)
CitizenshipGerman
NationalityGermany
Political partyCDU
Children5
Alma materJohannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Early life and education

Willsch attended the University of Mainz and received a masters degree in Economics and Political science. He served in the military service and began his career at Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG.

Political career

After joining the CDU, Willsch started his political career. In 1994, he was mayor of Schlangenbad. From 2000, he is a representative of CDU in Hesse.

Willsch has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 1998 elections. In parliament, he first served on the Finance Committee from 1998 until 2002. He was a member of the Budget Committee between 2002 and 2013. Since 2013, he has been serving on the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy. In this capacity, he is his parliamentary group's rapporteur on aviation and arms exports.

In addition to his committee assignments, Willsch chaired the German-Croatian Parliamentary Friendship Group between 2006 and 2010; he has been serving as deputy chairman ever since. Since 2014, he has been chairing the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Circle of Friends.

Other activities

Corporate boards
  • go4copy.net eG, Member of the Supervisory Board

Non-profit organizations
  • Association of German Foundations, Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012)
  • Vietnamese-German University (VGU), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2011)
  • Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2006)[1]
  • Fraunhofer Society, Member of the Senate (2005-2010)

Political positions

Within his party, Willsch is widely regarded a critic of chairwoman and Chancellor Angela Merkel.[2][3] On July 17, 2015, he voted against the government's proposal to negotiate a third bailout for Greece.[4] In June 2017, he voted against Germany's introduction of same-sex marriage.[5] On 16 March 2018, he was one of three CDU members who broke ranks with their parliamentary group in not voting against a motion of the Alternative for Germany; instead they decided to abstain from the vote.[6]

Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2018, Willsch publicly endorsed Friedrich Merz to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.[7] In early 2020, he co-founded an informal cross-party group of MPs from the CDU, CSU and FDP parties who opposed a potential coalition government between CDU/CSU and the Green Party.[8]

Personal life

Willsch is married and has five children.[9] The family resides in Holzhausen (which is called Holdesse in the local dialect), a town in Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis.

References
  1. Board of Trustees Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).
  2. Stefan Wagstyl (September 25, 2017), Merkel admits she has ‘polarised’ Germany as grip on power weakens Financial Times.
  3. Guy Chazan (February 13, 2018), German conservatives start to plan for life after Merkel Financial Times.
  4. Paul Carrel (July 17, 2015), German lawmakers back Greek bailout despite rebellion; Tsipras sacks dissenters Reuters.
  5. Diese Unionsabgeordneten stimmten für die Ehe für alle Die Welt, June 30, 2017.
  6. Matthias Kamann (March 17, 2018), Ein Loch in der Ablehnungsfront der Union Die Welt.
  7. Heimische CDU-Vertreter: Merz soll CDU-Chef werden Frankfurter Neue Presse, November 21, 2018.
  8. „Liberal-konservativer Kreis“: Bundestagsabgeordnete bilden neues Forum Deutschlandfunk, January 4, 2020.
  9. Klaus-Peter Willsch - Persönlich Archived 2012-03-28 at the Wayback Machine
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