Bernd Althusmann (German pronunciation: [ˈbɛʁnt ˈalthʊsman]; born 3 December 1966) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for Economic Affairs in the government of Minister-President Stephan Weil from 2017 to 2022.

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (July 2017)

Quick Facts MdL MdBR, Deputy Minister-President of Lower-Saxony ...

Bernd Althusmann MdL MdBR
Deputy Minister-President of Lower-Saxony
In office 22 November 2017 – 8 November 2022
Minister-President	Stephan Weil
Preceded by	Stefan Wenzel
Succeeded by	Julia Hamburg
Minister for Economics, Labour, Transportation and Digitization of Lower-Saxony
In office 22 November 2017 – 8 November 2022
Minister-President	Stephan Weil
Preceded by	Olaf Lies (Economics, Labour and Transportation)
Succeeded by	Olaf Lies
Leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Lower Saxony
In office 12 November 2016 – 21 January 2023
Deputy	Fritz Güntzler Lena Düpont Reinhold Hilbers
Preceded by	David McAllister
Succeeded by	Sebastian Lechner
Minister of Education of Lower Saxony
In office 27 April 2010 – 19 February 2013
Prime Minister	Christian Wulff David McAllister
Preceded by	Elisabeth Heister-Neumann
Succeeded by	Frauke Heiligenstadt
Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony for Seevetal (CDU List; 1994–2009)
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 November 2017
Preceded by	Norbert Böhlke (2014)
In office 23 June 1994 – 16 June 2009
Succeeded by	Elisabeth Heister-Neumann
Personal details
Born	(1966-12-03) 3 December 1966 (age 57) Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, West Germany (now Germany)
Political party	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
Military service
Allegiance	Germany
Branch/service	Bundeswehr
Years of service	1986 - 1994
Unit	Army (Heer) / Panzertruppe

Close

From 1994 to 2009, Althusmann was Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony. He served as State Minister of Education in the cabinets Wulff II and McAllister from 27 April 2010 until 19 February 2013.

In July 2011 it was reported that Althusmann had taken over texts or literal texts in several places in his dissertation.^[1] The University of Potsdam has not confirmed the plagiarism allegations, despite deficiencies.^[2]

Between 2013 and 2016, Althusmann headed the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's office in Windhoek, Namibia.

Althusmann was the CDU's leading candidate for the 2017 Lower Saxon state election.^[3]

On the national level, Althusmann served as a CDU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010,^[4] 2012,^[5] 2017 and 2022.^[6] In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, he co-chaired the working group on urban development; his counterparts were Kurt Gribl and Natascha Kohnen.^[7] Together with Monika Grütters, Daniel Günther, Michael Kretschmer and Armin Laschet, Althusmann co-chaired the CDU’s national convention in Berlin in February 2018.^[8]

Since 2022, Althusmann has been chairing – alongside Gitta Connemann – a working group charged with drafting the CDU’s positions on energy policy.^[9]

During his election campaign, Althusmann publicly favored someone from outside the auto industry to succeed VW chief executive Matthias Müller and wanted to cede one of the state’s two board seats to a non-political expert.^[12][13] But when his party lost the 2017 state elections to the SPD, he claimed the economy minister’s right to join VW’s supervisory board alongside Minister-President Weil.^[14]

Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2021, Althusmann publicly endorsed Armin Laschet to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party’s chair.^[15] For the 2021 national elections, he later also endorsed Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel.^[16]