Former German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is stepping into a bigger role at a major car dealership.
After his dismissal as finance minister in 2024 and his Free Democratic Party’s abysmal performance in the 2025 election, Lindner quit politics. Autoland AG subsequently announced last fall that he would join their executive board. The company claims to be Germany’s biggest auto dealer for used and new vehicles.
Lindner is now set for a promotion in 2027. “The company must be in the hands of a manager. And the first management leader is Mr. Lindner. He will become the CEO,” Autoland founder Wilfried Wilhelm Anclam said on an automotive podcast Monday.
Lindner is a car enthusiast and is known for driving a vintage Porsche. He served as finance minister for three years in the troubled three-party coalition government of previous Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which collapsed in late 2024, leading to an election.
Lindner’s pro-business and car-friendly FDP crashed out in that election, failing to garner the 5 percent of votes required to secure seats in the German parliament. The ailing liberals have failed to make the 5 percent threshold in the every state election since then.
While Lindner was mostly off the grid in the months after the government collapse, he has made several media appearances since last fall.
