Braun, who was thought of as a party insider, loyal to moderate Merkel, ran in the December 2021 CDU leadership election, but only came in a distant third.
Early life and education
After passing the Abitur in 1992 at the Liebigschule in Giessen, Braun studied medicine at the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen. From 2001 until 2009, he was a scientific assistant at the Clinic for Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Analgesic Therapy of the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg. He speaks German and some English.[1]
Political career
From 1989 until 2007 Braun was a member of the Young Union (JU). He was the district leader of the JU Giessen from 1992 till 1997 and from 1998 until 2001 he was the regional leader of the JU Mittelhessen.
He has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union since 1990.
Member of Parliament
Braun first served as a member of the Bundestag from October 2002 to September 2005. From 2003 until 2005 he was the deputy leader of the Hessian Members of the Bundestag. He also served on the Committee on Education and Research, the Committee on Environment, Nuclear Safety and Nature Conservation and on the Parliamentary Advisory Board for Sustainable Development.
Braun lost his seat in the 2005 federal elections. He was able to re-enter the Bundestag in 2009, winning the constituency of his home town of Gießen[2] with a majority of 59,441 votes or 36.7%. After the election, he was again elected as deputy leader of the Hessian MPs. In the subsequent federal elections of 2013 and 2017 he was able to defend his seat.
In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Social Democrats following the 2013 federal elections, Braun was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on education and research policy, led by Johanna Wanka and Doris Ahnen. Merkel subsequently appointed him as Parliamentary Secretary of State for Bureaucracy Reduction and Federal-State Relations,[5] serving directly under her in the Federal Chancellery. In that capacity, he was one of the officials co-ordinating Germany's response to the European migrant crisis in 2015.[6]
For the 2021 elections, Braun was elected to lead the CDU campaign in Hesse.[8] He lost his constituency to the Social Democratic Party but was re-elected on the state list.
Since late 2021, Braun has been chairing the Budget Committee.[13] In this capacity, he also serves as his parliamentary group’s rapporteur on the annual budget of the Federal Ministry of Health. In 2022, he also joined the Subcommittee on Global Health.
In November 2024, Braun announced that he would not stand in the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[14]
