Friedrich Merz

Friedrich Merz   (lawyer, politician, lobbyist, deep state actor)
Born	11 November 1955
Nationality	German
Member of	Aspen Institute Germany, Atlantik-Brücke, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Trilateral Commission
German transatlantic lobbyist and politician. Blackrock. Former chairman of the influential Atlantik-Brücke.  Atlantik-Brücke/Chairman In office 2009 - 2019 Preceded by Tom Enders  Member of the European Parliament In office 18 June 1989 - 12 June 1994  Member of the Bundestag for Hochsauerlandkreis In office 16 October 1994 - 27 September 2009 Succeeded by Christian Lindner, Sahra Wagenknecht

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." 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.

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 , 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.

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. 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 and sits on committees in the neoliberal network Stiftung Marktwirtschaft.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2024	30 May 2024	2 June 2024	Spain Madrid	The 70th Bilderberg Meeting
Munich Security Conference/2010	5 February 2010	7 February 2010	Germany 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/2011	4 February 2011	6 February 2011	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 47th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2012	3 February 2012	5 February 2012	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 48th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2013	1 February 2013	3 February 2013	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2014	31 January 2014	2 February 2014	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 50th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2015	6 February 2015	8 February 2015	Germany 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/2016	12 February 2016	14 February 2016	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 52nd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2017	17 February 2017	19 February 2017	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 53rd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2019	15 February 2019	17 February 2019	Germany 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/2022	18 February 2022	20 February 2022	Germany Munich Bavaria	Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here
Munich Security Conference/2024	16 February 2024	18 February 2024	Germany 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

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