The focal points of his work are foreign and security policy, with regional emphasis on the Middle East, in particular Iran and Turkey and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is following the political effects of Islam both in this region and beyond with particular interest. Good transatlantic relations with the USA are especially important to him. 

In addition, he chairs the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Control Panel under Section 41 (5) of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act and is a substitute member of the Joint Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat under Article 53 a of the Basic Law.

In the year 2000, Ruprecht Polenz was the Secretary-General of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Today he sits on the executive committee of the North-Rhine/Westphalia CDU und is a member of the CDU’s Federal Committee on Foreign and Security Policy.

He is a lawyer and has worked since 1980 for Northern Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce, becoming its director for media and public relations in 1984. He is on leave of absence while he is a Member of the German Bundestag.

Ruprecht Polenz, born on 26 May 1946 in Denkwitz/Bautzen, is Roman-Catholic, married and the father of four children.

In 1968, after completing his military service (reserve lieutenant), he began to study law in Münster, qualifying as a lawyer in 1976 when he passed the second state examination.
During his time at university, he was active in the Law Department, the student council and as a student representative in the academic senate and the university council of the University of Münster. In 1970 he was the chairman of the working group of German students’ associations (ADS), in 1973 chairman of the North-Rhine/Westphalian branch of the Association of Christian Democrat Students (RCDS), from 1974 to 1980 member of the executive committee of the Westphalia-Lippe branch of the Young Union (youth section of the CDU/CSU), from 1975 to 1994 member of Münster city council, from 1984 to 1994 chairman of the CDU group on the council, and from 1995 to 2003 chairman of the Münster county branch of the CDU.

Ruprecht Polenz also demonstrates his commitment towards his country and its people through the voluntary positions he holds: Chairman of the Television Council of the ZDF (a national television broadcaster), President of the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), President of the German Atlantic Association (1997 - 2006), member of the board of trustees of Grünhelme e.V. (“Green Helmets”, a humanitarian agency), Chairman and Co-Founder of the Christian-Muslim Peace Initiative (CMFI) (2006-2012), member of the board of trustees of Münster University of Applied Sciences, member of the board of trustees of the Westphalian Heart Foundation, member of the board of trustees of the German-Turkish-Association, member of the advisory council of the European Council on Foreign Relations, member of the advisory council of the Center for Global Politics (Freie Universität Berlin), member of the advisory council of the Development and Peace foundation, member of the advisory council of the Atlantic Initiative, member of the advisory council of the USC Münster sports club, and member of the advisory council of the Münster branch of the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA).

Publications on foreign- and media-policy issues.

As at: April 2013