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North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet will succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the new CDU leader.
The 59-year-old prevailed on Saturday at the digital CDU party convention in a runoff election against ex-Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz.
The decision still has to be formally confirmed by postal vote.
Laschet received 521 votes, Merz 466 votes.
991 votes were cast, four delegates abstained.
In the first ballot, Merz had 385 votes, Laschet 380 votes.
224 votes went to Norbert Röttgen, who ended up in third place and was thus out of the race.
Laschet said after the election that he was aware of his responsibility and that he would do everything to ensure that the CDU could successfully go through the year and appoint the next chancellor.
He thanked the outgoing party leader Annegret Kamp-Karrenbauer as well as Röttgen and Merz for a fair election campaign.
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The 59-year-old has been Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.
In his application speech at the party congress, he emphasized his experience as head of government.
"You have to master the tools of a central policy." Laschet referred to the negotiations on the coal exit or the fight against crime in North Rhine-Westphalia.
He is the only one of the three applicants to hold a government office.
In the power struggle for the CDU chairmanship, too, Laschet tried to score points, above all with his experience as NRW Prime Minister - and with a course of "measure and middle".
The miner's son from Aachen recently tried to avoid a sharp demarcation from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is once again extremely popular among the population.