federal chairman of the Junge Union Deutschlands
Paul Ziemiak took which position from 2014 to Oct 2017?
Paul Ziemiak Paul Ziemiak ( born 6 September 1985 as Paweł Ziemiak ) is a German politician of the CDU who has been serving as Secretary General of his party since 8 December 2018 , under the leadership of chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer . He is a member of the Bundestag . From 2014 until 2018 , Ziemiak served as federal chairman of the Junge Union Deutschlands , in this capacity being a part of the CDU leadership under chairwoman Angela Merkel . In the 2017 federal election , he was elected to the Bundestag on the CDU party list . Early life and career . Ziemiak was born in Szczecin , Polish Peoples Republic . He moved to then-West Germany in 1988 with his parents , who wanted to escape the conditions of Communist Poland and the Eastern Bloc . The Ziemiaks were among the around 140,000 Polish citizens who left for Germany in that year , shortly before the Fall of Communism . Claiming partial German descent , they obtained citizenship under Germanys right of return laws and lived for a year in a refugee camp in Massen next to non-western asylum seekers . Ziemiak has said the facility was often visited by the police and that he befriended a Roma family that also lived there . After a year they settled permanently in Iserlohn . Both his parents had been doctors in Poland , but their qualifications were not recognised in West Germany and they had to retrain as interns in German hospitals before obtaining their German licenses and finding employment . Ziemiak grew up bilingual , with parents who were native Polish speakers and who only spoke German as a foreign language . He has said the family was culturally Polish and that Germany only gradually felt like home . After graduation Ziemiak studied law at the Universität Osnabrück and the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster but failed the first legal exam on both attempts . He then enrolled at the Business and Information Technology School in Iserlohn to study corporate communications . Since 2005 Ziemiak has been a member of the Catholic fraternity AV Widukind Osnabrück within the CV . Furthermore , he is a member of the Catholic student fraternity KDStV Winfridia ( Breslau ) Münster . Political career . Ziemiak joined the Young Union in 1998 , and in 2001 the CDU . From 1999 to 2001 he was the first chairman of the newly founded Children and Youth Parliament of the city of Iserlohn . In 2002 he became a member of the district council of the Junge Union in the Märkischer Kreis . In 2006 he was elected to the state board of the JU NRW . In 2007 he became a member of the executive state board . In 2009 he took over the leadership of the district association of the Junge Union Südwestfalen ( South Westphalia ) . Since 2011 he has been serving as chairman of the CDU Iserlohn and member of the board of the CDU parliamentary group in the council of the city Iserlohn . In addition , he is a member of the district executive committee of the CDU Südwestfalen . Chairman of the Young Union , 2012–2018 . On 25 November 2012 Ziemiak was elected state chairman of the Junge Union NRW and held this office until 15 November 2014 . In 2014 , he won the vote for the presidency of the Junge Union against Benedict Poettering and won with 63 percent of the vote . It was the first battle candidacy for this position since 1973 . Ziemiak thus is a member of the CDU federal board and replaced Philipp Missfelder , who did not run again . On 14 October 2016 , Ziemiak was again elected Federal Chairman with 85 percent of the vote . In February 2017 , Ziemiak was a member of the 16th Federal Assembly for the election of the Federal President . In addition to his political career , Ziemiak worked with consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers until entering parliament . Member of Parliament , 2017–present . In the federal election 2017 , Ziemiak ran as successor to Ingrid Fischbach in the constituency Herne – Bochum II , but lost to Michelle Müntefering . Nevertheless , he moved to the Bundestag via the state party list . He has since been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs . In the negotiations to form a fourth coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections , Ziemiak was part of the working group on families , women , seniors and youth , led by Annette Widmann-Mauz , Angelika Niebler and Katarina Barley . Secretary General of the CDU , 2018–present . The new CDU party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer nominated Ziemiak on 8 December 2018 as Secretary General . He was elected on the same day , with 63 percent of the delegates voting for him as the only candidate for the role . At the time of the vote , Ziemiaks nomination was widely interpreted as sign of Kramp-Karrenbauer willingness to build bridges to the defeated conservatives around her opponents Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn . Political positions . Within the CDU , Ziemiak represents the party’s more conservative wing . For example , he has stated that he is opposed to a revision of German criminal law paragraph 219a , which prohibits public advertisement of abortion procedures . Other activities . Corporate boards . - Bädergesellschaft Iserlohn mbH , Member of the Supervisory Board - Energie AG , Member of the Supervisory Board - Stadtwerke Iserlohn GmbH , Member of the Supervisory Board Non-profit organizations . - Konrad Adenauer Foundation ( KAS ) , Membe