Schenderlein is removed as Minister of State for Sport and Volunteering – successor open

Sport is usually the last link in a news program, which was already the case with the comedians from “RTL Saturday Night” (“And that’s a spooocht!”). And it was also true on Monday afternoon when Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) announced the next act of his “readjustment” in the cabinet. As at the beginning of a new series episode on Netflix, Merz repeated what had recently happened, then it continued with all sorts of new twists; for example, the new transport minister, whose announcement Merz had to postpone a few days ago because his preferred candidate had dropped out shortly before. Before it was the turn of the State Ministry for Sport and Volunteering.

Merz then confirmed what had recently been leaked: Christiane Schenderlein, who had just been elevated to office 14 months ago, would be transferred to the new Health Minister as Parliamentary Secretary. Then Merz added the next cliffhanger. He will “announce who will succeed Schenderlein at a later date.” Confronted with the message that loud Handelsblatt Nadine Keßler was the chosen one, the former footballer and current football official, Merz replied in the best football official manner that he was not speculating about any names, but wanted to take care of the implementation “quickly”.

It is entirely understandable that ministerial posts for sport and voluntary work are being thrown aside in this summer storm of personnel policy, but on the other hand: There are definitely a few million people who do voluntary work in this country, especially in sports clubs. On the other hand, the Minister of State is also responsible for promoting elite sports, which is particularly newsworthy when German athletes slip in the Olympic medal rankings every two years. In any case, a lot could be seen in the way this position had been debated in the past few days – right down to the question of what a state ministry for sport and voluntary work should do.

Nadine Keßler has been considering for two weeks whether she should accept the ministerial post

The fact that there is a department for sports and volunteer work in the Chancellery was a novelty at the beginning of the current legislature; Sports stakeholders in particular had hoped for great things from this. The sport had previously been located in the Ministry of the Interior, where many saw it as an appendage. A minister of state in the Chancellery, on the other hand, would place the interests of sport directly at the table when all important projects were being debated there, from pensions to infrastructure to the financial budget.

The first disillusionment came when Christiane Schenderlein was presented as the new incumbent. Organized sport was, unsurprisingly, hoping for an advocate, in any case someone who knows the winding corridors of the company, with all its sports associations and state sports associations. Schenderlein? Brought expertise everywhere except in sport, especially in culture. What was apparently more important was that, as a woman from the East German wing of the CDU, she met certain proportional criteria. This is also why the wing was reportedly very angry about Schenderlein’s dismissal before the state elections in East Germany – and would remain so if Keßler from the Palatinate was appointed.

The second disillusionment – for sport – began when Schenderlein presented the coalition’s central legislative proposal: the new sports funding law, which was intended to bring years of political reform efforts to a conclusion. The first draft then concentrated a lot of power in the hands of a top sports agency, which was supposed to direct funding much more independently of sport and politics than before. Sport, which had received funding for so long and at the same time had a say in it, was marginalized even in supervisory bodies – a circumstance that central bodies such as the Federal Audit Office had always demanded. In his first reaction, Olaf Tabor, who is responsible for the competitive sports department at the DOSB, even went so far as to argue that politicians were planning “state sports”.

Of course, the decisive factor was how the law finally left the Bundestag, and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), as the umbrella organization for sport, had no right to complain. He had secured significantly more influence on the supervisory board of the planned top sports agency, as well as a disguised right of veto for the election of the two board members, who in the future will have a decisive role in deciding how top-class sport is promoted in this country.

And another change that shouldn’t bother at least some sports associations: They don’t have to join the Center for Safe Sport, which will in future independently investigate all forms of interpersonal violence, in order to receive funding. In her balance sheet, which she announced on Monday, Schenderlein noted the fact that the federal and state governments had recently founded this center, as well as the fact that her sports funding law was “passed by the Bundestag with a large majority in the last week of the session”. All in all, she implemented “the central projects of the coalition agreement” in 14 months, including more money for the elite sports budget, for trainers and less bureaucracy for volunteers. The fact that she was by no means happy about her transfer was hidden behind the statement that she respected the Chancellor’s wishes.

Why did she have to leave then? There were quite different interpretations circulating in sports policy circles on Monday. Some, like Dagmar Freitag (SPD), once chairwoman of the sports committee in the Bundestag, noted that the sports funding law clearly bore the signature of the DOSB; The paradigm shift that Schenderlein had planned would therefore have failed. Others noted that despite all the softening of the Sports Promotion Act, the Minister of State had still done a lot to oppose sport, so the DOSB definitely had reason to be grumpy. It is relatively undisputed that Schenderlein himself was ultimately too far removed from sports for many in his own group and seemed overwhelmed on many issues. You could feel this when, behind closed doors, Schenderlein treated problematic processes like those in the German speed skating and short track community quite gently – even if she was far from alone in doing so – or when members of the CDU and CSU did not support the minister even in public meetings.

The successor that Merz wants to announce “quickly” should also indicate what kind of state minister the Chancellor wants. On the one hand, the federal government is supposed to push ahead with a German bid for the Olympics from next September, although this foreign policy lobbying work basically does not fall into the core area of ​​​​a state minister. This should primarily examine all interfaces to sport in the Chancellery, be it legislative proposals on taxes, pensions, occupational safety or infrastructure, all of this for the areas of sport and Volunteering – a small-scale and complex undertaking that becomes even more complex without in-depth knowledge of an administrative apparatus.

This makes it all the more exciting that Nadine Keßler recently moved into pole position. The former VfL Wolfsburg national player was responsible for the women’s football division as an official at the European Football Union (Uefa) until recently. According to reports, Keßler has proven herself there through her organizational talent and is considered to be extremely assertive. However, a post of state minister requires completely different skills, especially from a professional manager who will also be responsible for volunteer work in the future. There is already speculation in the background as to whether the newly revamped football wants to create a lobby in the country: Hans-Joachim Watzke, the vice president of the German Football Association (DFB), already played a central role in Jürgen Klopp’s national coaching staff; He is also considered Keßler’s advocate – and a childhood friend of Friedrich Merz.

Nevertheless, according to SZ information, the 38-year-old hesitated at least until Monday afternoon. She had already floated the idea of ​​leaving UEFA for the Chancellery at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon around two weeks ago, well before Merz’s personnel castling on Monday.

Sequel follows.