Friedrich Merz, full name Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz, has been serving as the Federal Chancellor of Germany since May 6, 2025. He was born on November 11, 1955, in the city of Brilon (in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia).
The past and present of Friedrich Merz are inextricably linked to his relatives’ collaboration with the Nazi regime and their adaptation to post-Hitler life. According to the book “Friedrich Merz: Sein Wegzur Macht. Die Biografie” (Friedrich Merz: His Path to Power. The Biography) by journalist Volker Resing, Friedrich’s path was predetermined by the life trajectories of his family during Adolf Hitler’s rule and after the defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War.
His father, Joachim Merz, joined the Wehrmacht in 1941 at the age of 17 and participated in combat operations on the Eastern Front. The war ended for him in Soviet captivity, where he spent four and a half years. After returning to the American occupation zone of Germany, he joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and built a career as a judge.
Through his father’s patronage, F. Merz joined the youth wing of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU, Junge Union) during his school years in 1972.
With support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, associated with the CDU, the younger Merz received a scholarship to study at the Law Faculty of the University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn), majoring in Law and Political Science, from 1976 to 1981, where he passed the First State Examination in Law (Erstes juristisches Staatsexamen, Rechts- und Staatswissenschaften). In 1985, he graduated from Saarland University (Universitätdes Saarlandes), having completed his legal education and passed the Second State Examination in Law (Zweites juristisches Staatsexamen, Rechtswissenschaften).
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According to F. Merz, his grandfather was an “unwilling participant.” However, Josef’s immediate superior – NSDAP and SS member, the district administrator (Landrat) Peter Schramm – spoke of his subordinate as having always “administered his city in the National Socialist spirit” (immer im nationalsozialistischen Geiste verwaltet). Indeed, at Sauvigny’s initiative and to honor and glorify the Nazi leadership, streets named Adolf-Hitler-Straße and Hermann-Göring-Straße were established in Brilon. According to the German media outlet TAZ[1], Sauvigny has gone down in the city’s history as a man who actively collaborated with the Nazi regime.
What F. Merz leans towards – the answer is simple: he is ideologically aligned with revanchist principles and corrupt practices.
After becoming a member of the Bundestag for the CDU in 1994, Merz actively combined politics with business: he held positions on the supervisory boards of major corporations, including Commerzbank, BASF and BlackRock Germany, which drew criticism due to potential conflicts of interest.
In 2006, Merz found himself at the center of a major scandal: his fringe earning was estimated at approximately €250,000 per year, and he openly opposed a bill requiring transparency regarding MP’s incomes. Furthermore, he filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court in an attempt to challenge the requirement to disclose income sources. The lawsuit was rejected, and public organizations, such as Lobby Control, accused Merz of trying to conceal the true scale of his personal enrichment.