Christiane Schenderlein, a member of the Bundestag from Saxony, has been appointed Minister of State for Sport and Volunteering in Friedrich Merz's new cabinet. The CDU politician, who lives in Taucha, is one of the party's two government representatives from eastern Germany together with Katherina Reiche.
The newly created office was initiated by Friedrich Merz as part of the coalition negotiations. Schenderlein will not be a minister with her own portfolio, but will be part of the Federal Chancellery as a high-ranking government representative. The aim of the new state ministry is to significantly enhance the political status of sport, voluntary work and social commitment in Germany.
Originally, Schenderlein was also being discussed as a possible Minister of State for Culture, but this area was surprisingly taken over by publisher Wolfram Weimer, a political scientist and former editor-in-chief of Cicero and Die Welt.
In addition to other CDU representatives such as Katherina Reiche as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, the cabinet includes a total of twelve ministers and ministers of state from the CDU/CSU ranks, including those responsible for digitalization, health and the foreign ministry.
Christiane Schenderlein was born in 1981 in Weißenfels. She studied political science, media and communication studies and history at the universities of Leipzig and Halle. She began her political career as an office manager for various members of the Bundestag. In 2019, she entered the Saxon state parliament via the CDU state list, but moved to the Bundestag in 2021.
Currently, she is the cultural policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag and a member of the Committee on Culture and the Media. During the coalition negotiations, she headed the working group for culture and media, where she primarily advocated for greater support for cultural institutions in rural areas.
Despite the support of Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer, however, she was unable to secure the position of deputy CDU state chairwoman in Saxony. Schenderlein lives with her family in Taucha near Leipzig and is considered one of the most important political voices for eastern Germany within the federal CDU.
The designated ministers of the upcoming black-red federal government / Source: CDU on X
