Via Twitter ins Amt: Karl Lauterbach, die Corona-Pandemie und das Bundesgesundheitsministerium

Abstract

This article argues that Karl Lauterbach accomplished the office of federal secretary of health mainly due to his Twitter activities and the concomitant exposure in political TV talk shows . Lauterbach had little intraparty support after his failed bid for SPD leadership . He did not hold a senior office within his parliamentary group or within the health policy community . The Land party of North Rhine-Westphalia had placed him on a hopeless position of the Land list for the federal elections . Finally, he played a minor role in the coalition negotiations and did not lead the talks on health policy for his party . With a view to all known informal rules for the selection of government ministers, he was certainly not part of the pool of likely candidates . The detailed quantitative analyses of Lauterbach’s Twit ter and media activities show that it was most likely this self-generated public visibility which explains his appointment .