Former German Finance Minister Christian Lindner goes into the car business. Lindner, a declared Porsche enthusiast and leader of the liberal FDP from 2013 to 2025, made the announcement on Tuesday evening announced on Facebook that he will become deputy chairman of the Autoland AG company. “I want to work where the heart of the German economy beats.”
How the man who played a central role in the ‘traffic light coalition’ of SPD, FDP and De Groenen that collapsed last year ended up in the automotive industry, he himself explains based on his “personal passion” for cars: “For me, individual mobility is a matter of freedom.”
Autoland AG is the largest independent, non-branded car seller in Germany, he writes – with around 60,000 cars sold, 32 branches, 1,500 employees and around one billion euros in turnover. The company’s focus is in eastern Germany, but expansion across the country is in the offing, according to 46-year-old Lindner.
During the government of Chancellor Scholz (2021-2024), Lindner was simultaneously Minister of Finance and party leader. That cabinet fell after Scholz dismissed Lindner due to a lack of confidence. In the elections that followed early this year, the FDP did not reach the five percent electoral threshold, causing the party to disappear from the Bundestag and Lindner to leave politics.
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