Franziska Hoppermann to succeed Carsten Linnemann as CDU General Secretary

Franziska Hoppermann from Hamburg is set to become CDU General Secretary. She is assigned to the liberal wing. But she is not quite that liberal.

24.7.2026 | 6:56 PM

Franziska Hoppermann is to be promoted from party treasurer to general secretary. Photo: Soeren Stache/dpa

By Gernot Knödler

Now it will probably happen after all with the post of CDU General Secretary. Hamburg member of the Bundestag Franziska Hoppermann had already applied for the office once before, in 2021 on a team with foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen. The latter was running for the CDU chairmanship at the time against Friedrich Merz and Armin Laschet – with Hoppermann in tow.

Even if official confirmation is still pending: Today's CDU chairman and Federal Chancellor Merz does not seem to be bothered by this and wants to promote the previous party treasurer to general secretary. Apparently he shares the assessment of Röttgen, who praised Hoppermann at the time as intellectual, organizationally talented, and communicative – all qualities needed for this job.

That she is not intellectually naive is already indicated by the fact that she was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation during her business administration studies in Hamburg. At times she also worked as a research assistant for a Hamburg state parliament member, alongside her mandate in the Hamburg-Wandsbek district assembly.

After her studies, she entered the higher civil service of the Hanseatic city, where she most recently headed the central office of the Authority for Justice and Consumer Protection. According to her own statement, she was closely involved in the city-state's crisis management at the authority. Not least because of this, she was elected chair of the Bundestag's Corona Commission of Inquiry.

The "Experiential Feminist"

Hoppermann, until now the CDU's federal treasurer, belongs to the party's employee wing and is assigned to its liberal spectrum. During her presentation with Röttgen in 2021, she announced that she wanted to modernize the party: Members should be granted more participation, the party should become more digital, and turn to the major issues of the future.

However, the woman, who grew up in a large Catholic family, is not quite that liberal:

• She criticized the traffic light coalition's migration policy.
• She considers the legalization of cannabis wrong.
• She also opposes the repeal of the "advertising ban" for abortion.
• In 2018, she spoke out in favor of a headscarf ban for girls under 14.

"I want to live in a country where community spirit and patriotism are central," she said during her application five years ago. Her role model is her grandfather Carl Damm, who sat in the Bundestag for the CDU for 15 years until 1980. In her view, contemporary conservatism is "above all the assurance that the state works."

Since 2017, Hoppermann has been chair of the Hamburg Women's Union. She describes herself as an "experiential feminist" and believes that the Union needs more visible women to make the party more attractive to women. With this, she has moved a little further along.

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