This year we are honored to have the Honorable Armin Laschet as the Grand Marshal for the 2024 Steuben Parade. Mr. Laschet is the Former Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2017 to 2021 and the Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany for Cultural Affairs under the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation from 2019 to 2021.

From 2013 to 2017, Mr. Laschet was Chairman of the CDU parliamentary group. He was State Chairman of the CDU North-Rhine Westphalia from 2012-2021 and Federal Chairman of the CDU Germany and Chancellor candidate from 2021 to 2022. He is a member of the German Bundestag since 2021 (member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs) and Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2022.

Mr. Laschet has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the RAG Foundation since 2022. He also founded the Abraham Accords Institute in 2022, of which he is Chairman. He is a lecturer at the University of Bonn and the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. He is also a member of Atlantik- Brucke e.V.

In 2023, Mr. Laschet was appointed Commander of the National Order of the French Legion of Honor by President Emmanuel Macron, and in 2024 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from TED University Ankara.

Mr. Laschet studied law and political science at the Universities of Munich and Bonn. After his state examination in law in 1987, he began training as a journalist. He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 1998 and a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005. From 2005 to 2010, Armin Laschet was Minister for Generations, Women and Integration of the State of North Rine-Westphalia and in 2010 he served as Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media.