Friedrich Merz, the presumptive future Chancellor of Germany (CDU), has reportedly formed his team for the leadership of the Chancellor’s Office. According to the FAZ citing Union circles, the decision on the leadership of two of the seven departments is still pending.
Jacob Schrot will work particularly closely with Merz at the Chancellery. Schrot will lead the Chancellor’s Office. He has been Merz’s chief of staff in the Union fraction for three years. Additionally, he will lead the “National Security Council” office located at the Chancellor’s Office. The introduction of such a security council is one of the main innovations Merz intends to introduce.
Günter Sautter will be the head of the foreign policy department. The career diplomat, who has been part of the Foreign Service since 2002, has been the political director at the Foreign Office since 2024.
Michael Clauß, an experienced diplomat from the Foreign Office, will also move to the Chancellor’s Office. Merz wants him to lead the department 5 for European policy. He was the German ambassador to Beijing until 2018 and has been the permanent representative of Germany to the European Union since then.
Philipp Wolff, the vice-president of the BND, will take over the leadership of department 7. The employees of this department are responsible for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the coordination of the federal intelligence services. The Munich-born lawyer has also had experience in the Kanzleramt during the Merkel chancellorship.
Levin Holle will lead the department 4 for economic, financial and climate policy. The lawyer has been the finance director of the Deutsche Bahn AG since 2020. He also has experience in the political field at the federal level. Holle took over the leadership of the department for financial market policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2012.
Christian Diehr will lead the department 1, the so-called central department, which includes interior and legal policy. The lawyer is currently the deputy head of the Finance Ministry and deals with financial relationships to the states and municipalities and questions of state and constitutional law.
While decisions on the future leadership of departments 3 (social, health, labor market, environment and societal policy) and 6 (political planning and fundamental issues) are still pending, it is already clear that Jörg Semmler will become State Secretary in the Chancellery. He also has extensive experience in federal ministries and in the Union fraction. He was previously the chief of staff of the Minister of the Chancellery, Peter Altmaier. Since 2019, he has been the director of the Union fraction.