Friedrich Merz

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Person.png Friedrich Merz  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(lawyer, politician, lobbyist, deep state actor)
Friedrich Merz.jpg
Born11 November 1955
NationalityGerman
Member ofAspen Institute Germany, Atlantik-Brücke, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Trilateral Commission
German transatlantic lobbyist and politician. Blackrock. Former chairman of the influential Atlantik-Brücke.

Employment.png Member of the European Parliament

In office
18 June 1989 - 12 June 1994

Friedrich Merz is a German lobbyist and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was Chairman of the transatlantic network Atlantik-Brücke until 2019, and is a staunch supporter of the European Union and NATO, having described himself as "a truly convinced European, a convinced transatlanticist[1]." Merz advocates a closer union and "an army for Europe". He also sits on the supervisory board of the German branch of the world's largest asset manager BlackRock[2].

He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1989 to 1994 and was elected to the Bundestag from 1994 until 2009, where he chaired the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2000 to 2002. Merz was a candidate in the 2018 CDU leadership election, placing second; tried again in the 2021 leadership election[3] , but did not succeed.

Bank lobbyism

From 2005 to 2014 (until 2009, in addition to being an elected representative) Merz worked as a partner in the international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP - a heavyweight in the industry with annual sales in the billions, one of the twenty largest law firms in the world and which mostly represents Wall Street companies.

As a representative of this law firm, Merz was hired as a lawyer by the German government (SoFFin) in 2010 to find a buyer for the ailing bank WestLB after the law firm already had dumped the bank's junk bonds worth 77 billion euros to a taxpayer-funded "Bad Bank". Merz received a fee of 5,000 euros per day from the government for his services. His engagement was also a success for the bank HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, which played a role in the takeover of the WestLB assets. As a thank you for this, Merz was allowed to take over the presidency of the HSBC Trinkaus Board of Directors, a well paid position. [4]

He sits on the boards of AXA Group AG, DBV-Winterthur Holding AG, Deutsche Börse AG, Ernst & Young AG, ROCKWOOL, WEPA Industrieholding SE, Commerzbank AG and the HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt[5]. His biggest career move, however, was his appointment as chairman of the supervisory board of the German branch of the world's largest asset manager BlackRock.

He is a founding member of the neoliberal think tank Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft[6] and sits on committees in the neoliberal network Stiftung Marktwirtschaft.[7]


 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/202430 May 20242 June 2024Spain
Madrid
The 70th Bilderberg Meeting
Munich Security Conference/20105 February 20107 February 2010Germany
Munich
Bavaria
An anti-war demonstration outside described it as "Nothing more than a media-effectively staged war propaganda event, which this year had the purpose of justifying the NATO troop increase in Afghanistan and glorifying the continuation of the war as a contribution to peace and stability."
Munich Security Conference/20114 February 20116 February 2011Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 47th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20123 February 20125 February 2012Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 48th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20131 February 20133 February 2013Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201431 January 20142 February 2014Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 50th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20156 February 20158 February 2015Germany
Munich
Bavaria
"400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts."
Munich Security Conference/201612 February 201614 February 2016Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 52nd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201717 February 201719 February 2017Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 53rd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/201915 February 201917 February 2019Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events."
Munich Security Conference/202218 February 202220 February 2022Germany
Munich
Bavaria
Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here
Munich Security Conference/202416 February 202418 February 2024Germany
Munich
Bavaria
Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References