Germany's New CDU Star: Kohl's Grandson Takes On China and Pensions

The 30-Year-Old CDU MP Testing Germany's Taboos on China and Retirement

Johannes Volkmann is one of the youngest members of Germany's Bundestag and, by most accounts, the CDU's most talked-about newcomer. Elected in March 2025 at the age of 30, the Hessian deputy now occupies an unusual position: he is the grandson of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, yet has built his public identity on refusing to exploit that family history.

Volkmann joined the CDU at 16, became the party's youngest federal executive board member in 2024, and represents the Lahn-Dill district, a Mittelstand heartland in Hesse that has felt the pressure of Chinese competition. He studied in Shanghai and Beijing and holds a master's degree in contemporary Chinese studies from Oxford — background that gives his current political project a distinctly personal edge: a campaign against what he calls China's unfair trade practices.

In an alliance that would once have been unthinkable in German conservative politics, Volkmann and Green MP Anton Hofreiter presented a joint position paper this summer calling for compensatory tariffs on all Chinese products entering the European Union. The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from the far-right AfD, which calls it a Cold War-style policy of isolation, and from parts of the German business establishment, where large exporters fear Chinese retaliation. Volkmann's argument is blunt: Europe cannot offset what he estimates as a 30% Chinese advantage from currency manipulation and hidden state subsidies through domestic tax, labour or welfare policy alone.

Volkmann is also pressing a second reform front: Germany's pension system. He opposed Chancellor Friedrich Merz's earlier proposal package as superficial, helping push Merz to create an expert commission that reported in early July. The government has pledged to turn its recommendations into legislation by the end of the year. Volkmann wants to end what he calls the overly costly early-retirement regime, introduce a Swedish-style funded pillar, and index the retirement age to life expectancy — which he says could mean a very gradual rise toward 70.

From Kohl's Shadow to a Head-On Clash Over China

A Generation That Refuses Kohl's Shadow

Volkmann's decision to keep his grandfather at arm's length is more than a family matter. The CDU is squeezed by the AfD's rise and is searching for figures who look genuinely new. By never invoking Helmut Kohl's legacy, Volkmann separates himself from the party's past at a moment when the CDU needs to argue about the future. His French-friendly rhetoric — praising Paris for being more clear-sighted on China — also signals a generational shift in how German conservatives talk about European solidarity and trade.

China Policy: Where Volkmann, the Greens and German Business Diverge

The tariff proposal is striking because it breaks a long-standing German export consensus. For decades, Berlin treated Beijing primarily as a commercial partner. Volkmann redefines it as a systemic rival whose currency practices and subsidies distort markets. His alliance with Anton Hofreiter shows the trade question now cuts across party lines. The real split, however, is inside German business: Mittelstand companies exposed to Chinese overcapacity support defensive measures, while multinationals with large China operations lobby against tariffs for fear of retaliation. That tension will shape how far the CDU can actually go in Brussels, where trade policy remains an EU competence.

The Pension Bet That Could Define Merz's Term

Volkmann's pension agenda puts him at the heart of Germany's most politically explosive fiscal issue. State subsidies to the pay-as-you-go pension system already consume as much as the federal budget for education, research, family policy, police and civil protection combined — a comparison he cites as untenable. His prescriptions may be rational on the numbers, but indexing retirement age to life expectancy and moving toward 70 is exactly the kind of proposal that mobilises voters and fuels the AfD. The expert commission has handed Merz a reform menu; turning it into law by year-end will test the coalition's discipline and Volkmann's ability to convert profile into influence.

What Berlin and Brussels Should Watch as Volkmann's Ideas Move

• Watch the German government's pension draft bill promised before the end of this year: if the expert commission's early-July recommendations are adopted, early-retirement rules and the retirement-age indexation formula will change planning horizons for workers close to the threshold.
• For German exporters and Mittelstand suppliers, assess China revenue and input exposure now: any tariff action would be decided at EU level, and the open split between multinationals and SMEs means the policy trajectory remains contested.
• Track whether the Volkmann–Hofreiter paper feeds into EU trade-defence instruments: compensatory tariffs on Chinese goods would need European Commission preparation and a broader member-state consensus, not just a CDU position.
• Politically, treat Volkmann's rise as a marker for the CDU's post-Merz succession debate: his perceived independence from the Kohl legacy is a deliberate strategy, not an oversight, and it may shape the party's leadership conversation sooner than expected.