Carsten Linnemann


Carsten Linnemann is a German economist and politician. As a member of the Christian Democratic Union, he has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 2009 election, representing Paderborn – Gütersloh III. He serves as the leader of MIT, the pro-business wing in the CDU/CSU.

Professional career

Between 2006 and 2007, Linnemann, a devoted Catholic, was an assistant to Norbert Walter, chief economist of Deutsche Bank. He subsequently worked as economist with IKB Deutsche Industriebank from 2007 to 2009, where he focused on small and medium enterprises.

Political career

Since 2009, Linnemann has been serving on the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs, where he is his parliamentary group's rapporteur on welfare payments.
In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats following the 2013 federal elections, Linnemann was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on labor policy, led by Ursula von der Leyen and Andrea Nahles. In similar talks following the 2017 federal elections, he was again part of the working group on social affairs, this time led Nahles, Karl-Josef Laumann and Barbara Stamm. However, he later abstained in the party leadership's vote on endorsing the renewed grand coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Since March 2018, Linnemann has been serving as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group under the leadership of Volker Kauder. In this capacity, he oversees the group's initiatives on economic policy.

Other activities

On July 17, 2015, Linnemann voted against the government's proposal to negotiate a third bailout for Greece. In June 2017, he voted against Germany's introduction of same-sex marriage.
In 2019, Linnemann drew sharp criticism for saying that children who speak little German shouldn’t immediately be allowed to enter elementary school.