Berlin A few years ago that seemed unthinkable, but now it’s becoming reality: the energy company RWE is making Titus Rebhann, a long-time close associate of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, its chief lobbyist. The former head of Baerbock’s Bundestag office will move to the head of the company’s capital representative office in Berlin on March 1, 2023, said an RWE spokesman on Tuesday in Essen. The “world” had previously reported.
Rebhann worked for Baerbock in the Bundestag until the change of government at the end of last year. Then he moved with her to the Foreign Office. The ministry pointed out that Rebhann had been released since mid-October and “had no professional contacts with RWE and was not involved in any projects directly related to RWE”.
The Green Party member justified his move to RWE to the dpa by saying that he wanted to work more in the field of energy and national climate protection again. “RWE is an exciting group that is changing and is taking the energy transition seriously with investments in the billions,” said the 39-year-old. “I look forward to being able to actively help shape the transformation towards CO2 neutrality of Germany’s largest energy company in the future.” At RWE he is not responsible for state politics in NRW, but for federal politics.
There are frequent changes from politics to business. For example, former federal government spokesman Thomas Steg became chief lobbyist at Volkswagen in 2012. In 2013, the Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery, Eckart von Klaeden, also joined Daimler as a lobbyist. Contacts to politics can be very helpful in such jobs.
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This should also apply to Rebhann: RWE is relying heavily on renewable energies, but also on lignite in the Rhenish mining area in North Rhine-Westphalia by 2030. In North Rhine-Westphalia’s state government, Environment Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) was once Rebhann’s boss: the future RWE lobbyist headed Krischer’s office for eight years in the Bundestag. In 2018 he switched to Baerbock.
Her husband Daniel Holefleisch once worked as a lobbyist at Deutsche Post. Against the background of his wife’s electoral success last year, he left the Bonn-based group. He now works for a political communications agency.
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