This paper tackles the problem of the revolving door amongst German ministers. The phenomenon can be understood as a subcategory of political clientelism and relates broadly to the exchange of personnel between the private and public sector. The concept works in a circular way and includes politicians who switch from their political office to become representatives of private industries and to representatives of the private sector who start a second career in politics. The study of the revolving door is so far mainly limited to the U.S. where private and public sector are traditionally strongly interlinked. Here scholars, the media and even politicians themselves link the phenomenon to a crisis of democratic legitimacy. In contrast to the U.S., the phenomenon has received hardly any scholarly attention within the European context. However, due to several scandals public debate started also in Europe to acknowledge the problem of the revolving door. In Germany the “immoral” mixture of private and public office of Bundespräsident Wulff, chancellor candidate Steinbrück’s casual earnings in the private sector and the activities of former chancellor Schröder in the board of management of the controversial Russian company Gazprom dominated in the last months the German media.
