The new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz who officially took office on May 6, 2025, appointed Wolfram Weimer’s publisher and journalist as a new Minister of Culture, succeeding Claudia Roth. Born in 1964 in Gelnhausen (ex-Western Germany), Wolfram Weimer obtained his baccalaureate in 1983 and then studied history, German literature, political science and economics at the University of Frankfurt. Holder of a doctorate on American banking history, he began his career at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungthen becomes editor -in -chief of Die Welt and Berliner Morgenpost. In 2004, he founded the magazine Picabecome a reference to the political and cultural debate in Germany, then directs Focus And creates his own publishing house, the Weimer Media Group – Function he has just abandoned after his appointment to the ministry, entrusting his management to his wife.
Close to the CDU/CSU (Christian Democrat Union and Social Christian Union), Wolfram Weimer has rather conservative positions. In his work The conservative manifestoit highlights the principles of attachment to the fatherland, the honor of the nation and the valuation of tradition, deploring, as the United World International media underlines, “A overwhelming loss of power in Europe due to decolonization”.
An editorial of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung where he worked for a long time, even qualified him as “Bad man in bad place”believing that it would be “Hardady” To assume that Weimer is interested in intellectual art or life, these areas having hardly played a role in his career so far.
His appointment to the government marks a turning point for the country’s cultural policy, after a more progressive period under Claudia Roth, member of the German ecological party Alliance 90/The Greens. She was notably on the initiative of Kulturpass, an allowance of 200 euros for 18 -year -olds in order to facilitate their access to culture. However, Germany being a federal state, the attributions of the Länder are more important, including in the cultural field, than those of the Minister in Berlin.
