member of the Bundestag for Meißen
What was the position of Thomas de Maizière from 2009 to Oct 2009?
Thomas de Maizière Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière ( ; born 21 January 1954 ) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 2009 to 2011 and 2013 to 2018 , as well as Federal Minister of Defence from 2011 to 2013 . He previously served as Head of the Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the First Merkel cabinet from 2005 to 2009 . Since 2009 , he has been a member of the Bundestag for Meißen . Along with Ursula von der Leyen and Wolfgang Schäuble , De Maizière was one of only three ministers to have continuously served in Chancellor Angela Merkels cabinets from 2005 until 2018 . Together with Von der Leyen , he was widely looked on as a possible future successor to Merkel . Before his appointment to the federal cabinet , he served as a minister in the state government of Saxony , including as chief of staff to the Minister-President , State Minister of Finance and State Minister of Justice . Early life and education . Maizière was born in Bonn to the later Inspector general of the Bundeswehr , Ulrich de Maizière . He graduated at the Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn and studied law and history at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster and the University of Freiburg . He passed his first state examination in law in 1979 and his second 1982 , earning his Doctor of law ( Dr . jur. ) in 1986 . He belongs to a noble family originally from Maizières-lès-Metz who , as Huguenots , had fled France for asylum in Prussia in the late 17th century . The Maizière family still attended French-language schools and Huguenot churches in Berlin until the beginning of the 20th century . His cousin Lothar de Maizière is also a CDU politician and was the last , and only democratically elected , Premier of the German Democratic Republic , who later served as Federal Minister of Special Affairs in the Kohl government until his resignation due to his affiliation with the GDR secret service having been discovered . Political career . Early career in state politics . Maizière worked for the governing mayor ( prime minister ) of West Berlin ( Baron Richard von Weizsäcker and Eberhard Diepgen ) , before becoming a member of the West German team in the negotiations on German reunification . After 1990 he worked with re-establishing democratic structures in states that were part of the former German Democratic Republic . He became secretary of state at the ministry of culture of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in November 1990 . From December 1994 to 1998 he was chief of staff of the Chancellery of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . He served as the chief of the Saxon Chancellery from 1999 to 2001 , with the rank of cabinet minister . As chief of staff to Kurt Biedenkopf , he helped negotiate the special Solidarity Pact designed to finance the reconstruction of the former East Germany . From 2001 to 2002 he served as the minister of finance of Saxony , from 2002 to 2004 minister of justice , and from 2004 to 2005 as minister of the interior . Chief of Staff at the Federal Chancellery ( 2005–2009 ) . On 17 October 2005 , Maizière was nominated as a member of the Federal Government as chief of the Chancellors office and as federal minister for special affairs in the first Merkel cabinet . He took office on 22 November 2005 , after Merkels election as Chancellor by the Bundestag . In his capacity as chief of staff of the chancellery , he also functioned as deputy president of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs ( Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik ) . Between 2007 and 2009 , Maizière was one of 32 members of the Second Commission on the modernization of the federal state , which was established to reform the division of powers between federal and state authorities in Germany . Federal Minister of the Interior ( 2009–2011 ) . He was elected in Meißen . In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections , Maizière led the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on taxes , national budget , and financial policy ; with Hermann Otto Solms of the FDP as joint chairman . Following the formation of the Second Merkel cabinet , he took office as Federal Minister of the Interior . As Interior Minister , Maizière long played down security worries , but he abruptly changed course late in 2010 , giving warnings that there were serious indications of terror attacks being prepared in Europe and the United States . In July 2010 , he outlawed the Internationale Humanitäre Hilfsorganisation ( IHH ) , a charity registered in Frankfurt , because of its alleged links to the militant Palestinian organization Hamas , arguing that the IHH has , under the cover of humanitarian aid , supported Gaza Strip-based so-called social associations which are attributable to Hamas , for a long period of time and to a considerable financial extent . That same month , Maizière announced that Germany would take over and release two prisoners of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp . In October 2010 , Maizière and Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer banned arrivals of all air cargo from Yemen , after the German authorities had been tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that there were explosives inside a U.S.-bound parcel trans-shipped at Cologne Bonn Airport . Minister of Defence ( 2011–2013 ) . On 2 March 2011 , Merkel announced that Maizière was to take over from Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg , the federal defence minister who had resigned from office the previous day . On 3 March , he was formally appointed to this post . He held the defence ministry portfolio until 17 December 2013 . Signaling one of the biggest shake-ups in decades for the German military , in 2011 Maizière unveiled plans to reduce troop numbers , cut bureaucracy , and eliminate duplication inside the Federal Ministry of Defence . Under these proposals , the army was to be turned into a wholly professional force . On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the diplomatic relations between German and India , Maizière participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the two countries’ governments in Delhi in May 2011 . On 7 June 2011 , he attended the state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama in honor of Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House . Speaking to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in February 2012 , Maizière said that an Israel Defense Forces strike on Irans nuclear facilities was highly unlikely to succeed , and noted that such a strike would cause obvious political damage . During a meeting in Berlin in March 2012 , he warned Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak against an attack on Iran , joining other Western countries which were applying heavy international pressure on Israel to prevent it from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities . In 2012 , Maizière told a gathering of army reservists that he considered the U.S . strategy of using drones for targeted killings a strategic mistake . According to the online news edition of the German public television broadcaster ARD , Maizière had said he thought it was unwise to have U.S . commanders direct such attacks from their bases in the United States . Second appointment as Federal Minister of the Interior ( 2013–2018 ) . In the negotiations to form a government following the 2013 federal elections , Maizière led the CDU/CSU members in the working group on foreign affairs , defense , and development cooperation ; his co-chair from the SPD was Frank-Walter Steinmeier . On 17 December 2013 , he was appointed as Federal Minister of the Interior for a second time . In addition , he co-chairs the EPP Justice and Home Affairs Ministers Meeting , alongside Esteban González Pons . On 23 February 2014 , Bild am Sonntag reported that Maizière and other members of the government , as well as leading figures in business , were under NSA surveillance . The newspaper report , quoting an unnamed NSA official , said the U.S . was particularly interested in the interior minister because he is a close aide of Merkel , who seeks his advice on many issues and was rumored to be promoting his candidacy for the post of NATO secretary-general . From the beginning of 2015 , the left-wing opposition and media commentators have repeatedly criticized de Maizière over his record as chief of staff in 2005-09 , and over what he knew about Germanys Federal Intelligence Service ( BND ) helping U.S . agencies to spy on European firms such as the defence manufacturer Airbus . In late 2014 , Maizière proposed a law according to which the government would have the power to withdraw the identity cards of potential foreign fighters and replace them with another form of identification ; this was meant to allow government agencies to prevent Germans from leaving the country to join groups such as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria . In May 2015 , he banned Yuruyus , a leftist-terrorist newspaper published by the Turkish extremist group DHKP-C , and had his ministry order raids across the country in connection with this ban . By late 2015 , amid the European migrant crisis , de Maizière urged that Europe should set a limit on the number of refugees it takes in and seek out those most clearly entitled to protection . His critics say he failed to fight for more staff and budget for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees ( BAMF ) , which falls under his ministry , despite years of warnings from German states that the agency was being overwhelmed with asylum applications . In an effort to better detect the identities of migrants arriving from Syria , Afghanistan and other trouble spots , de Maizière later spearheaded the introduction of an identity card for refugees . In 2016 , Maizière banned the neo-Nazi group White Wolves Terror Crew ( WWT ) following raids on 15 properties across the country as worries were growing about a rise in right-wing sentiment after the influx of more than a million migrants the previous year . In January 2016 , Maizière participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany and Turkey in Berlin . Later career . Since leaving government in 2018 , Maizère has been serving on the Committee on Finance . In addition to his work in parliament , he has been teaching constitutional law at the University of Leipzig . Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2018 , de Maizière publicly endorsed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair . Since 2019 , de Maizière has been serving as chairman of the Deutsche Telekom Foundation . Also in 2019 , he was appointed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior , Building and Community to serve on the committee that oversaw the preparations for the 30th anniversary of German reunification . In 2020 , de Maizière was appointed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to co-chair ( alongside A . Wess Mitchell ) a group of experts to support his work in a reflection process to further strengthen NATO’s political dimension . In May 2020 , de Maizière announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term . Other activities . - German Evangelical Church Assembly , Member of the Presidium - Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , Member of the Board of Trustees - Moritzburg Festival , Member of the Board of Trustees - National Paralympic Committee Germany , Member of the Board of Trustees - Safety in Ski Sport Foundation ( SIS ) , Member of the Board of Trustees - ZEIT-Stiftung , Member of the Board of Trustees ( since 2018 ) - German Forum for Crime Prevention ( DFK ) , Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees ( 2013-2018 ) Recognition . - 2006 – Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic - 2007 – Royal Norwegian Order of Merit - 2009 – Grand Cross of the Ordem do Mérito - 2009 – Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Personal life . Maizière is married to Martina de Maizière , with whom he has three children . He is a Protestant .