Peter Altmaier

Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Acting Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2018 and as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021. He previously served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from May 2012 to December 2013 and Head of the German Chancellery and as Federal Minister for Special Affairs from December 2013 to March 2018. Altmaier is widely seen as one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's most trusted advisors and advocates for her more centrist wing of the CDU. He is known for his "compromising style" and was described in 2017 as "the most powerful man in Berlin". During his tenure as economics minister the expansion of renewable energies in Germany dropped signficantly, a development that has since been dubbed the "Altmaier-Knick" or "Altmaier-Delle". He represented Saarlouis in the Bundestag between 2009 and 2021.