Who is Friedrich Merz? Meet Europe’s Most Influential Leader as the US Shifts Away

Friedrich Merz was born in Sauerland, a rural and mountainous region of West Germany, a decade after World War II. By his own admission, he was an average student who smoked and drank at an early age and often got into trouble. However, he was heavily influenced by the region’s conservative values and joined the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) while still in high school. After a brief period in the military, he went on to study law at the University of Bonn, which was then the capital of West Germany.

Merz’s political career took off in 1989 when he was elected as a conservative member of the European Parliament, the same year the Berlin Wall fell. Five years later, he won a seat in the German Bundestag, where he built a close bond with CDU heavyweight Wolfgang Schäuble, a key advocate of European Union integration. Under Schäuble’s mentorship, Merz gained influence and was considered a potential candidate for chancellor.

However, his ambitions were derailed in 2002 when he lost a power struggle to the more centrist Angela Merkel. With little room to maneuver in the CDU under Merkel’s leadership, Merz retreated to a less active role in politics. Amid the 2008 global financial crisis, he authored Dare for More Capitalism, a book championing free-market policies. The following year, he left the Bundestag and transitioned into corporate law. He also became the chairman of Atlantik-Brücke, a lobbying group promoting strong U.S.-EU relations.

During his time at Atlantik-Brücke, Merz actively supported the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU. He also expanded his network in American business and political circles. According to his biographer Volker Resing, one of his favorite places in the U.S. is the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Over more than a decade in the private sector, Merz served on multiple corporate boards, including a four-year tenure with U.S. asset management giant BlackRock—an experience he describes as one of the happiest periods of his life. While he insists this time gave him valuable insights outside of politics, critics argue he merely leveraged his political connections for corporate gain, accumulating significant wealth in the process.