Paul Schmidt (politician)

Paul Schmidt (born 4 January 1966 in Karlsruhe) is a German politician of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). He has been a member of the Alternative for Germany since 2013.^[1]

Paul Schmidt
Member of the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 March 2025
Constituency	Baden-Württemberg
Personal details
Born	(1966-01-04) 4 January 1966 (age 59)
Political party	Alternative for Germany (since 2013)

He is a member of the 21st German Bundestag since 25 March 2025.^[2] Since May 20, 2025, he has been a full member of the Bundestag Committee on the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and a deputy member of the Bundestag Committees on Health, on Research, Technology, Space and Technology Assessment and on Housing, Urban Development, Construction and Communes.^[3] In the 2025 Bundestag election, he had succeeded in entering parliament via the state list of the AfD Baden-Württemberg.^[4]

Life

After attending primary school and grammar school, Paul Schmidt graduated from the Bismarck-Gymnasium Karlsruhe in 1985 with Latinum and Graecum. He then began his physics studies at the Technical University of Darmstadt and continued it after two semesters from September 1986 on at Syracuse University (SU), Syracuse, NY, USA, where he received a scholarship as a rower. During his studies, he worked as an radiation worker in the laboratory. In 1988, he received his Bachelor-of-Science and in 1991 his Master-of-Science degree in Physics, both at Syracuse University. The title of his master's thesis read: "Light interactions with phycomyces sporangiophores investigated with optical and biochemical approaches". His first professional station was the former Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center (now Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe). As a young test engineer, Paul Schmidt worked on a 1:20 scale model of a fast breeder reactor.

In 1993, he accepted a doctoral position at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Hesse, Germany, at the chair of the renowned biophysicist Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kiefer. The topic of his doctorate as Dr. rer. nat. was "Mutation Triggering by Different Types of Radiation in Rodent and Human Cells: Induction and Molecular Analysis". Parallel to his doctorate, Schmidt completed postgraduate studies in "Medical Physics and Technology" at the University of Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He returned to Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe as a post-doc. At the Institute for Reactor Safety, he worked on the thermohydraulic design of a lead-cooled nuclear reactor. Then came the step into industry: As project coordinator at the Gesellschaft für Nuklear Service (GNS) in Essen, Paul Schmidt was responsible for the development of CASTOR® fuel-assembly containers for energy suppliers in the USA and Italy.^[5]

In 2001, he switched to EnBW Kraftwerke AG and worked in the department of "Fundamental Nuclear Issues" in Stuttgart and at the Philippsburg nuclear power plant (KKP). His area of responsibility included fuel-assembly disposal, reprocessing contracts, external organisation of fuel transports as well as the further development and procurement of CASTOR® and TN24® casks for fuel assemblies. Since 2006, Paul Schmidt has worked as a nuclear reactor physicist at the Philippsburg 1 nuclear power plant, a BWR, (until it was shut down in 2011) and then at the Philippsburg 2 nuclear power plant, a four-loop PWR. He advised the operating team on the operation of the reactor and trained the shift staff. He created work instructions, carried out internal and external modification procedures and planned and supervised handling and relocation processes of core components for fuel-assembly repairs, refueling of the core and CASTOR cask loadings.

He also trained authority, TÜV and IAEA employees and worked as a reactivity-management expert on behalf of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). In addition, his responsibilities included working on fissile material flow control and supporting the Euratom and IAEA inspectors in KKP 1, KKP 2 and, in recent years, also in GKN II (Neckarwestheim). In addition, Paul Schmidt has been one of the persons in charge of nuclear transports since 2022. In February 2025, he obtained the qualification as a radiation protection officer in nuclear power plants and for X-ray equipment. In 2014, he was elected as a member of the Betriebsrat (works council) at the Philippsburg nuclear power plant and has been re-elected twice since then.^[6]

Rowing

Paul Schmidt's sporting passion is rowing. At the age of nine, he became a member of the German Rowing Association in 1975. From 1987 to 1989 he rowed in SU's First Varsity Eight;^[7] he competed in the World Championships in 1992 and 1994, the Universiade in 1993 and won the University World Champion title in 1994 in the lightweight straight four. From 1995 to 1997, Paul Schmidt led the famous Giessen Whitsun Regatta. From 2002 to 2009, he was head coach of the rowing team of the University of Karlsruhe and a Karlsruhe rowing club.

Politics

In March 2011, following the Tsunami in Japan around Fukushima, German Chancelor Angela Merkel ordered eight German nuclear power plants to shut down immediately. Unit 1 of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant was one of them and finally lost its operating license on August 6, 2011. After that, Paul Schmidt was looking for a German party that demanded to keep German nuclear power plants running and in 2013 joined the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded by Bernd Lucke.^[8] Since 2014, he has been elected (and re-elected) three times as a city councillor in Karlsruhe and a regional councillor^[9] in the Middle Upper Rhine Regional Association. Since 2019 he has been the parliamentary-group chairman in both bodies. Since 2014, he has been spokesman or deputy spokesman of the AfD Karlsruhe-Stadt district association. Paul Schmidt is a member of Christians in the AfD.

From 2014 to 2024, Paul Schmidt was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Karlsruhe Track- and Infrastructure GmbH. Since 2019 (with an interruption from 7/2023 – 6/2024), he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Karlsruhe Versorgungs-, Verkehrs- und Hafen GmbH and the Supervisory Board of the Stadtwerke Karlsruhe GmbH.^[10]

In 2016 and 2021,^[11] Paul Schmidt ran in the Karlsruhe I state parliament constituency, and in 2020 in the mayoral election in Karlsruhe.^[12][13] For the Bundestag election on February 23, 2025, he ran on the AfD state list of Baden-Württemberg in 19th place. Due to the party's good result, he entered the German Bundestag.^[14]

Paul Schmidt is married, protestant und lives with his wife and their two children in Karlsruhe, his home town.