Norbert Alois Röttgen (born 2 July 1965) is a German lawyer and politician who served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he placed third in the January 2021 CDU leadership election, then second in the December 2021 leadership election. From 2014 to 2021, he chaired the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee.
Early life and education Röttgen graduated from the Gymnasium of Rheinbach, North Rhine-Westphalia. After completing his Abitur, he started to study law at the University of Bonn in 1984. He passed his first law examination in 1989, his second examination in 1993 and practised as a lawyer in Cologne. He obtained a legal doctorate from the University of Bonn in 2001; his doctoral thesis was on the Court of Justice of the European Union.Matthew Karnitschnig (25 February 2020), The wannabe Merkels Politico Europe.
Political career Röttgen joined the CDU in 1982 while he was still a high-school student. From 1992 until 1996, he served as the chair of the Junge Union, the youth organisation of CDU, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Röttgen was elected to the Bundestag in 1994. From 2002 until 2005 he served as the legal policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. During the First Merkel cabinet (2005–2009), a grand coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD, he served as the Chief Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag until 2009. In this capacity, he worked closely with the SPD parliamentary floor manager Olaf Scholz to manage and defend the coalition government in parliament.Sebastian Fischer (13 November 2007), Müntefering Resignation: Merkel Loses 'Mr. Grand Coalition' Spiegel Online. He also served as member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr), which provides parliamentary oversight of Germany's intelligence services—BND, MAD and BfV.
Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2009–2011 Following the 2009 federal election, Röttgen was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the FDP on a coalition agreement; he joined the working group on economic affairs and energy policy, led by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) and Rainer Brüderle (FDP).
From 28 October 2009, Röttgen was the Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the Second Merkel cabinet. He also served as a member of the Board of Supervisory Directors at KfW from 28 October 2009 to 22 May 2012. From November 2010, he was one of the four deputy chairs of the CDU in Germany. Also, in November 2010 he was formally elected as party chair of the CDU in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia after he had successfully bet Armin Laschet in a membership ballot. At the time, he was often mentioned as a potential successor to Merkel as chancellor.Aaron Wiener (13 May 2012), Merkel's party suffers loss in key German state, early results show Los Angeles Times.
Röttgen, in his capacity as environment minister, led the German delegations to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún and the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, respectively.
In May 2011, Röttgen announced his government's plans to shut all of the nation's nuclear power plants by 2022. The decision was based on recommendations of an expert commission appointed after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.Judy Dempsey and Jack Ewing (30 May 2011), Germany, in Reversal, Will Close Nuclear Plants by 2022 New York Times. Later that year, he teamed up with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in launching the Bonn Challenge, calling for 150 million hectares of forest – an area four times larger than Germany – to be reforested by 2020; the Bonn Challenge was later endorsed at the 2014 UN Climate Summit and supplemented by the New York Declaration on Forests, which calls for an end to deforestation by 2030.
North Rhine-Westphalia state election and dismissal
Following the dissolution of the state's Landtag on 14 March 2012, Röttgen confirmed his intention to run in the subsequent election as the CDU's candidate for the office of Minister-President against the incumbent, Hannelore Kraft of the SPD. Röttgen ran against the debt-financed spending supported by Kraft, and even described the vote as a referendum on Merkel's Europe policies.Nicholas Kulish (13 May 2012), In Rebuke to Merkel's Party, Social Democrats Win German Vote The New York Times. However, he was widely seen as having failed to commit himself whole-heartedly to state politics, refusing to promise that if he lost the election he would nonetheless lead the opposition in North Rhine-Westphalia;Quentin Peel (26 September 2012), 'Red-green' victory makes waves in Berlin Financial Times. 59 percent of respondents to an FG Wahlen poll said his refusal to commit to the state "damaged the CDU."Brian Parkin (14 May 2012), Merkel Defeated in Worst Postwar Result in Biggest State Bloomberg.
Following the election defeat of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia by a margin almost three times more than was predicted in polls,Patrick Donahue and Brian Parkin (16 May 2012), Merkel Fires Roettgen After Worst Result in Biggest State Bloomberg. Röttgen resigned his position as head of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia. On 16 May 2012, Chancellor Merkel dismissed him under Article 64 of the German Basic Law as Minister for Environment.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Merkel fired Röttgen because she had insisted he would lead the opposition in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The dismissal was seen as unceremonious and highly unusual; ministers are normally given the courtesy of resigning by themselves even after scandals; an example for this was Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg one year prior. This was the last and overall second time a minister was actively dismissed on a federal level, the other occasion being in 2002, when Chancellor Schröder fired Minister of Defence Rudolf Scharping ahead of the 2002 elections after various scandals. In both cases, the Minister was unwilling to resign on his own. When Röttgen ran for the leadership of the CDU in 2021, some observers speculated he was partly motivated by the dismissal.
Peter Altmaier replaced him,Roland Nelles (17 May 2012), Another One Bites the Dust: It's Getting Lonely for Merkel within Her Party Der Spiegel while Armin Laschet took the post of party head in the land.
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 20142021 From 2014 to 2021, Röttgen was the chairman of the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group.German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group Federal Assembly.
In February 2014, Röttgen accompanied German President Joachim Gauck on a state visit to India – where they met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, among others – and Myanmar.Anne Merholz (5 February 2014), Großes Staatsbankett für Gauck "Bild". Shortly after the referendum on the status of Crimea held on 16 March 2014, he and his counterparts of the Weimar Triangle parliaments – Élisabeth Guigou of France and Grzegorz Schetyna of Poland – visited Kyiv to express their countries' firm support of the territorial integrity and the European integration of Ukraine.Weimar Triangle countries support the territorial integrity and European integration of Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, press release of 11 April 2014. This was the first time that parliamentarians of the Weimar Triangle had ever made a joint trip to a third country.Parlamentarier des Weimarer Dreiecks: Röttgen, Guigou und Schetyna in Kiew Bundestag, press release of 8 April 2014.
Together with President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble, Röttgen represented Germany at the funeral of U.S. Senator John McCain in 2018.Florian Gathmann and Severin Weiland (29 August 2018), Verstorbener US-Senator: Schäuble vertritt Deutschland bei McCain-Trauerakt Spiegel Online.
In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Röttgen was part of the working group on foreign policy, led by Ursula von der Leyen, Gerd Müller and Sigmar Gabriel.
In 2020, following the resignation of CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Röttgen announced his candidacy for the party leadership; this made him the first official contender in the election.Philip Oltermann (18 January 2020), Germany: senior CDU figure announces surprise leadership candidacy The Guardian.Andreas Rinke and Madeline Chambers (18 February 2020), Wild card Roettgen enters race to take over Merkel's party Reuters. After losing the election to Armin Laschet in January 2021, Röttgen announced his candidacy for the Christian Democratic Union leadership a second time on 12 November 2021. His opponents were Helge Braun and Friedrich Merz. Röttgen finished second in the race after Friedrich Merz, who would win the first round of an online membership ballot by 62.1%.
Deputy Chair of the CDU/CSU Group, 2025–present Since 2025, Röttgen has again been serving as deputy chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, this time under the leadership of chairman Jens Spahn. In this capacity, he oversees the group's legislative activity on foreign policy, defence, human rights and the Council of Europe.Daniel Delhaes (12 May 2025), Die Führungsriege um Fraktionschef Spahn nimmt Formen an Handelsblatt.
Political views European integration In 2011, Röttgen called for the direct elections of the President of the European Commission, a bicameral political system for the EU, and simultaneous parliamentary elections across the EU.The 'Yes', 'No' and 'Maybe' team European Voice, 23 May 2012.
Following the 2016 referendum on European Union membership in the United Kingdom, Röttgen co-authored a paper with Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir, Paul Tucker and Guntram Wolff which lays out a proposal of a "continental partnership" between the EU and the UK.Europe after Brexit: A proposal for a continental partnership Hertie School of Governance, released on 25 August 2016. According to the paper, such a partnership would grant Britain some control over labor mobility while preserving free movement of capital, goods and services.Patrick Donahue, Caroline Hyde and Arne Delfs (8 September 2016), Merkel Lawmaker Sees Leeway on Migration in Brexit Bargain Bloomberg News.
Relations with Russia Röttgen is considered as an advocate of a more assertive German foreign policy. In an editorial for the Financial Times in March 2014, he argued that the only people who seemed not to realize that Germany was at the center of the Crimean crisis were "the Germans themselves."Alison Smale (18 April 2014), Twin Shocks Shake Foundation of German Power International Herald Tribune. When Russian state-run energy group Gazprom conducted an asset swap with its long-term German partner BASF, under which it increased its stake in Wingas, Röttgen raised concerns about the deal.Stefan Wagstyl (26 March 2014), Gazprom deal in Germany raises alarm Financial Times. In his opinion, expanding Gazprom activities in Germany are "deepening our dependence on Russia." In late 2015, Röttgen called for a review of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, saying it was a "highly-political subject which carried the risk of splitting Europe" and may "contradict the aims of the agreed European energy policy."Christian Oliver and Stefan Wagstyl (18 December 2015), Tusk joins Italian premier in attacking Berlin over gas pipeline Financial Times.