Ralph Brinkhaus

Ralph Brinkhaus (born 15 June 1968) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as parliamentary leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag between 2018 and 2022, and as such acted as the opposition leader between December 2021 and February 2022.

In 2009, he was directly elected to the German Bundestag in the Constituency Gütersloh I and has been a member of the Bundestag ever since. He is Chairman of the regional CDU in Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and used to be the Chairman of the local CDU in Gütersloh until March 2019.

Since May 2025, Brinkhaus holds the position as Chairman of the Working Group of Digital and State Modernisation of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group at the German Bundestag.

Education and early career

Brinkhaus was born on 15 June 1968 in Wiedenbrück, North Rhine-Westphalia, and grew up in Rietberg. After completing vocational training at Bosch and military services at Field Marshal Rommel Barracks, Augustdorf, he studied economics at the University of Hohenheim. He holds a degree in economics and is a certified tax advisor.

Early in his career, Brinkhaus worked at Deloitte in Hannover, Babcock Borsig in Oberhausen, as well as at Medion in Essen and Mülheim. In 2004, he set himself down as independent tax advisor in Gütersloh.

Political career

Brinkhaus was elected member of the Gütersloh city council in 2004, a position he held until 2012. From 2007 to 2009, he was the party's group leader at that council. In 2004, he also became a member of the district CDU executive committee.