What Christian Lindner announces in a technically sober manner as Minister Mail Number 2 to “dear colleagues” is a revolution in personnel policy that is rarely seen in a federal department – especially not during an ongoing legislative period.
He announces nothing less than the departure of four department heads.
These are the minister's most senior employees after the secretaries of state.
So far, Lindner has ten departments.
Manfred Schaefers
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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He gets his new man for taxes from the house of Robert Habeck (Greens).
Nils Weith (born 1972) previously headed the tax department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.
Now he is taking a big career step as the successor to Rolf Möhlenbrock in the Ministry of Finance.
The doctor of law got to know the political business in the years 2011 to 2013 as a consultant for the FDP parliamentary group.
Möhlenbrock had taken on the important task under Lindner's predecessor Olaf Scholz (SPD), but is not tied to party politics.
Four new, diverse challenges
He still enjoys a good reputation among tax advisors and financial politicians.
One can only speculate why he has to go now.
It has long been whispered that the relationship with the responsible State Secretary Luise Hölscher was not always harmonious.
Whether the Annual Tax Act played a role in inheritance tax with the higher burden on real estate in some cases?
Perhaps only Lindner himself knows the answer. According to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, the new regulation was considered unavoidable, but of course it was anything but pleasant for a liberal politician who actually rejects tax increases.
The minister has the right to put political officials on temporary retirement without giving a reason – and Lindner has now made good use of this.
Armin Rolfink takes over the department for customs, VAT and consumer taxes from Tanja Mildenberger.
The doctor of business administration becomes head of department III.
Rolfink was the personal advisor to former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD), from 2009 to 2015 he headed various departments in the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He has been in the General Customs Directorate since 2016.
There he rose from department head to vice president.
Last but not least, he was responsible for the financial control of undeclared work.
What is Lindner's motivation?
Now he has to see that the new higher federal authority to combat financial crime, announced by Lindner, can start smoothly.
Above all, the central office for combating money laundering should no longer ensure new negative headlines.
Most recently, it became known in the summer that the special unit, for which the English name Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is often used, is sitting on a mountain of more than 100,000 unprocessed suspicious activity reports.
In mid-December, the head of the central office asked to be relieved of his position.
A new person is apparently still being sought here, but Lindner has not yet named a successor.
Oliver Lamprecht (born in 1966) will be the new head of his central department.
Like Weith, he comes from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, where he was a sub-department head for a good ten years.
Previously, the doctor of law was the office manager of State Secretary Bernd Pfaffenbach and economics officer at the embassy in New Delhi and in the representation at the United Nations.
His predecessor Martina Stahl-Hoepner is going into temporary retirement.
Finally, Lindner dissolves the small department for information technology.
"The use of Mr. Harald Joos as head of department VI expires at the end of this month," writes Lindner.
The politician describes his motivation behind the changes as follows: When he took over the ministerial post, he made it his goal to observe the processes in the house for a year.
This has passed.
"Now I want to focus the setup of the BMF more on our political projects and give the organization a long-term strategic perspective."