Which position did Philipp Mißfelder hold from 2014 to Jul 2015?
Philipp Mißfelder Philipp Mißfelder ( 25 August 1979 – 13 July 2015 ) was a German politician and a member of the German Bundestag . From January through March 2014 , he served in the German government as the Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation in the Field of Intersocietal Relations , Cultural and Information Policy . Life . Training . Mißfelder was born in Gelsenkirchen , Northrhine-Westphalia . After receiving his secondary school certificate in 1999 , Mißfelder served as a conscript in the German military . He began studying law in 2000 but changed his course of study to history at the Technische Universität Berlin in 2003 . He finished his studies in 2008 while serving in the Bundestag . Party activities . Mißfelder joined the Junge Union ( JU ) in 1993 and the Christian Democratic Union in 1995 and was head of the offshoot Schüler Union from 1998 to 2000 . He had been on the CDUs board of directors since 1999 and was voted onto the Junge Unions board of directors in 2002 . Since 2002 Mißfelder had co-chaired a party working group dedicated to improving relations between younger and older citizens . He had been an elected member of the CDUs leadership council , known as the Präsidium , since 2008 , and was its youngest member . German Bundestag . Mißfelder was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 , but was not directly voted in , instead entering through his partys Landesliste system , which allows some party members to join the parliament even if not directly elected . He was the CDU/CSU foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag and a member of the Bundestags foreign relations committee . Other activities . Since 2006 , Mißfelder had been a member of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and was in the Bundestags European Union parliamentary group . He served as a deputy member of the Haus der Geschichte Foundation in Bonn . Additionally , Mißfelder was on the German-British Societys Königswinter Conference steering and Executive Committee of the German Council on Foreign Relations ( DGAP ) , among other engagements . In June 2013 , he was appointed to the board of directors of the Atlantik-Brücke e.V transatlantic network . Mißfelder was married since 2006 and had two daughters . He was Roman Catholic . Death and legacy . Philipp Mißfelder died unexpectedly on 13 July 2015 of a pulmonary embolism . The chairman of his parliamentary group , Volker Kauder said about Mißfelder : Our group loses one of its most profiled politicians in foreign affairs and I personally lose a great friend , who accompanied me on many travels . I am distraught , stunned and sad . The Philipp-Mißfelder Forest in the Negev desert , Israel was named in his honor . Political positions . Within the CDU . In the Christian Democratic Union , Mißfelder was known for launching discussions about the partys conservative roots . In 2007 , he played a key role in forming the CDUs Einstein Connection , an internal group which aims to reinforce conservatism within the party . Mißfelder was a key defender of party member Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg , the German defense minister who was forced to resign his office after a scandal , calling internal criticism of Guttenberg offensive . Domestic politics . Mißfelder was known for his outspoken positions on social and fiscal issues . He gained international attention in 2003 when he said , I take no stock in 85-year-old people getting hip replacements paid by social welfare . The statement led to demands that he resign from party organs and helped launch a debate over the failing German social welfare system . A similar controversy arose in February 2009 after Mißfelder asserted that a social welfare increase would essentially be a subsidy to the cigarette and liquor industry . Mißfelder was on-record saying that the German retirement age of 67 should be increased to 70 . Additionally , he had argued that German healthcare funding reforms were putting too much of a strain on the younger generation . He voted against the 2008 German healthcare funding reform in the Bundestag , calling it neither intergenerationally just , nor appropriate for the older generation . He took a hard line against G8 protestors in Germany , comparing them to the demobilised domestic terror organisation , the Red Army Faction . Foreign politics . An influential voice on German foreign affairs , Mißfelder had spoken out against the possible entry of Turkey into the European Union but had supported UN actions in Libya , despite strong internal opposition within Germany . He strongly criticised famed German author Günter Grass when the latter controversially wrote a poem largely interpreted as being critical of Israel . After it was revealed that the US government was able to intercept encrypted communications from smartphones , Mißfelder declared that the situation was not one for politicians to engage in , but instead is a topic between the American government , the NSA and the producers ( of the phones ) . In March 2013 , Mißfelder praised former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder for speaking out against the War in Iraq . In May 2014 , he made headlines when he was one of few German politicians to take part in a birthday celebration for Schröder in St . Petersburg , at which he spoke with Vladimir Putin , on the height of the Ukrainian crisis . He had not informed chancellor Angela Merkel or his parliamentary group chairman Volker Kauder of the visit .