Philipp Amthor

Philipp Amthor (born 10 November 1992) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2017 German federal election, but who ended political ambitions for state leadership after publications denouncing his involvement in a lobbying scandal.

Philipp Amthor
Member of the Bundestag
for Mecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II
In office
24 October 2017 – 2021
Preceded byMatthias Lietz
Succeeded byErik von Malottki
Personal details
Born (1992-11-10) 10 November 1992
Ueckermünde, Germany
Political partyChristian Democratic Union
Alma materUniversity of Greifswald

Education and early career

Amthor was born 1992 in Ueckermünde and grew up in Torgelow. He studied law at the University of Greifswald, on a scholarship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). From 2017 to 2020, he worked as a research associate at the Berlin office of White & Case.[1]

Political career

Amthor joined the CDU in 2008. In the 2017 elections he became member of the Bundestag as the directly elected MP for the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II constituency.[2] In parliament, he has since been serving on the Committee on Internal Affairs (since 2018) and the Committee on European Affairs (2018–2021).[3] Since the 2021 elections, Amthor has been serving as his parliamentary group's spokesperson for state modernization.[4]

Since 2018, Amthor has been the treasurer of the Young Union (JU), making him part of the organization's leadership around chairman Tilman Kuban.

Following the resignation of Vincent Kokert as chairman of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Amthor announced his candidacy for the role.[5] Amid growing criticism of his lobbying activities on behalf of a private company, he declared in June 2020 that he would not run for the party's leadership in the state anymore.[6]

Augustus Intelligence lobbying scandal

In 2018 and 2019, the physician Wolfgang Haupt recruited more than 30 private investors from Europe and the USA with the help of political contacts, especially in conservative circles, who invested more than USD 35 million in his start-up. The basis was a company valuation of more than 250 million dollars, although the company was not able to show one own marketable product.[7]

In 2020, German news magazine the Spiegel published a story detailed Amthor's lobbying efforts with chancellor Merkel for the American-German company. In April 2021, the company, which among other things wanted to develop AI software for face and speech recognition, applied for bankruptcy protection proceedings in the USA (Chapter 11). A few months later, company boss Haupt died in a helicopter crash in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[7]

Political positions
Amthor in 2019

Ahead of the Christian Democrats' leadership election in 2018, Amthor publicly endorsed Jens Spahn to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.[8] He later endorsed Friedrich Merz as Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's successor at the party's 2021 leadership election.[9]

Amthor is considered part of the conservative wing of the CDU,[10] having come out against gender mainstreaming, abortion and the legalisation of same-sex marriage.[11][12]

Public personality

Amthor's eccentric personality, dated speech and conservative political positions, in contrast to his youthful age, have led to him being dubbed "the oldest 26-year-old in Germany",[13] and has made him the subject of significant public mockery and online memes. He is particularly known for his frequent use of the word Schabernack,[14] a word that approximately translates to "jokery" or "foolishness", and which was nominated for the 2020 German Youth Word of the Year[15]

Other activities

References
  1. "Lobby-Affäre: Amthor beendet weitere Nebentätigkeit". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  2. "Deutscher Bundestag - Philipp Amthor". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  3. Philipp Amthor Bundestag.
  4. Robert Birnbaum (14 December 2021), Union hadert mit der Aufstellung für die Opposition Abreibung für die Ex-Minister Der Tagesspiegel.
  5. Amthor steht als CDU-Landeschef in MV bereit Norddeutscher Rundfunk, 4 February 2020.
  6. Matthias Wyssuwa (19 June 2020), Amthors Kandidaturverzicht: Nur ein gequältes Lächeln Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  7. NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "Amthor droht neuer Ärger wegen Augustus Intelligence". n-tv.de (in German). Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  8. Juliane Schultz (6 December 2018), CDU MV vor Parteitag: Amthor wählt Spahn – Konservativer Kreis überraschend ohne Favoriten Ostsee-Zeitung.
  9. CDU-Vorsitz: Philipp Amthor sieht Friedrich Merz als Kandidat der Parteibasis Augsburger Allgemeine, 19 December 2020.
  10. Kleinpeter, Lisa (26 September 2017). "Philipp Amthor (CDU): Der Junge mit der Hornbrille". Schweriner Volkszeitung. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  11. Sippel, Daniel (23 September 2017). "CDU-Wahlkämpfer Philipp Amthor: Er ist 24 und will in den Bundestag". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  12. "CDU-Politiker wurde in Vollversammlung des Laiengremiums gewählt – Nach Lobbyaffäre: Berliner Diözesanrat hält vorerst an Amthor fest". katholisch.de. 17 June 2020.
  13. Ludwig, Lisa (29 May 2019). "Politik Philipp Amthor ist die Geheimwaffe der CDU – und wir sind schuld daran". VICE. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  14. "Genug Schabernack - Amthor JU Gaming Night". YouTube. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  15. ""Mittwoch" gegen "Schabernack": Jugendliche stimmen über das Jugendwort des Jahres ab". RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  16. Sven Becker, Rafael Buschmann, Roman Höfner, Nicola Naber, Gerald Traufetter and Christoph Winterbach (12 June 2020), Der CDU-Jungstar und seine diskrete Lobbyarbeit: Ist Philipp Amthor käuflich? Der Spiegel.
  17. Philipp Amthor Bundestag.
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