Peter Tauber

Early life and education

After high school diploma in 1994 in Gelnhausen Tauber studied Medieval and Modern History, German Philology, and Political Science at the Goethe University of Frankfurt, temporarily interrupted by military service. In 2000 he finished his studies as a Magister Artium with distinction.

From 2000 to 2001, Tauber was a research fellow at Goethe University. From 2001 to 2003 he was State General Manager of the Junge Union in Hesse, since 2003 he was chairman of the Junge Union in Hesse. From 2003 to 2004 he was personal advisor of the Hessian Culture Minister Karin Wolff in the state government of Minister-President Roland Koch. In 2007 he attained a doctorate with Lothar Gall. He wrote his thesis about the social position and ideological functionalisation of sports in the German Kaiserreich.

From 2008 until the federal elections in 2009 Tauber was press spokesman of Deutsche Vermögensberatung. In 2008 he also became a lecturer at the history department of the Goethe University.

Political career

Tauber became a member of the Junge Union in 1991, and he joined the CDU in 1992. From 1993 to 2007 he was City Councillor in Wächtersbach. Since 2005 he also was MP of the county council (Kreistag) of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis. 2008 he was elected board member of CDU Hesse.

Tauber has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 2009 federal elections. During his first term in parliament, he served on the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as well as on the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs. In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group’s rapporteur on the Federal Volunteers Service, intergenerational justice and Intersex.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Tauber was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on cultural and media affairs, led by Michael Kretschmer and Klaus Wowereit. On 16 December 2013, Tauber was appointed preliminarily as Secretary General of the CDU by the party’s chairwoman Angela Merkel; he succeeded Hermann Gröhe, who had been appointed Health Minister after the elections. On 5 April 2014, he was formally elected on the CDU federal party convention, with a record result of 97 percent. Tauber stated after his election that the CDU needed more young people, more women and more migrants within its ranks.

Telecommunications data retention

Til 2013 Tauber was considered to be an opponent of telecommunications data retention, whereas the majority in his party wanted to introduce a new bill, but this was impossible because from 2009 to 2013 the CDU was in coalition with the FDP, that was opposed to telecommunications data retention. But in December 2013 the CDU formed a Grand coalition with the SPD and Tauber had been nominated as general secretary of the CDU on 16 December 2013 and since January 2014 Tauber had changed his position and actively supported a new bill against a reluctant Minister of Justice from the SPD. In October 2015 the bill was approved by the Bundestag and in November 2015 by the Bundesrat of Germany and is now law.

"Operation Kaninchenjagd"

Operation Kaninchenjagd ("Operation rabbit hunting") is one of two titles of a anonymous paper that became public in September 2016 and led to accusations against the politician Peter Tauber. It is alleged that Mr. Tauber – who was at that time member of the CDU and the (regional) chairman of the Young Union in Hesse – was involved in (attempted) bullying of another member and employee of the Christian Democratic Party.

Other activities