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In the Osnabrück district, 56-year-old CDU politician Thomas Spieker is running against incumbent Anna Kebschull and often stays overnight at his parents’ house in Georgsmarienhütte-Oesede for election campaign appointments.
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Spieker distances himself from his father Manfred Spieker, who left the CDU in 2017 in the dispute over marriage for all, and describes himself as a “centrist liberal Christian Democrat”.
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He criticizes Kebschull’s candidacy as a “party-independent individual candidate” and accuses the district leadership of having “systematically neglected” when it came to health care and hospital deaths in the surrounding area.
He lives in the youth room again – at least two or three days a week if the election campaign requires it.
When Thomas Spieker spends the night in his parents’ house in Georgsmarienhütte-Oesede, the 56-year-old sleeps in the room on the upper floor in which he grew up as the eldest of six siblings. Below is the heavy living room: dark wood, walls of books, theological works, scientific literature. A 17th-century Caravaggio hangs above the sofa: Saint Jerome writing. It shows an ascetic scholar in a red robe, with a long beard and a pen in his hand, a skull on the table as a symbol of transience.
Thomas Spieker in the living room of his parents’ house in Georgsmarienhütte-Oesede – between walls of books, candles and the heavy interior of his childhood.
Photo: Jörn Martens
His father, 82-year-old Manfred Spieker, lives here – professor emeritus of Christian social sciences at the University of Osnabrück, church-oriented, journalistically controversial. He was a member of the CDU for 43 years until he left in 2017 in the dispute over marriage for all.
Read more: Because of “marriage for all”: Osnabrück professor Manfred Spieker resigns from the CDU
Liberal instead of hardliner
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The 56-year-old son remained a Christian Democrat. Not out of convenience, but out of conviction. He cannot understand his father’s move. As he emphasizes, he “completely disagrees” on this point. He also believes that “you shouldn’t leave a party because of a single issue.”
For Thomas Spieker, political commitment is part of long-term responsibility. “If I had left because I didn’t like something, I would have left several times in 36 years of membership.” He quotes Frederick the Great: “Everyone should be saved according to his own style.” Homosexuality is not a problem for him. He sees himself as a “centrist liberal Christian Democrat”.
About his role in the family, he says: “I was primarily the mediator. Diplomacy is much closer to me than to others.” Open distance in terms of content – while at the same time spatially close in the parental home.
Why he doesn’t live here
His first place of residence is currently in Gehrden in the Hanover region. His professional career took him there early on. After studying and working in Bonn and Berlin, he moved to Hanover in 2003, initially working as press spokesman for the CDU state parliamentary group under David McAllister, and later as spokesman in the Ministry of Social Affairs.
It was a career behind the scenes – close to political decisions, but not in the front row. “That was a dream job for me – communications,” he says. Therefore, he saw no reason to advertise himself away. The Hanover region became the center of his life. He has four children with his wife Joanna; the youngest daughter (19) still goes to school there.
And yet the connection to the Osnabrück district always remained. Family, parents, memories – all of this kept drawing him back. “This is my home.” His mother has severe dementia and lives in a nursing home, his father still lives in his parents’ home. The family situation never allowed us to break off contact. He often spends the night in the old youth room again for election campaign appointments.
More information:
In the “Power & People” series, our editorial team presents personal portraits of all candidates for the district election in the Osnabrück district. The focus is on biography, influences and motivation – not the election program.
Publication dates (online):
Jörg Dilge (AfD) – Saturday, February 14th
Thomas Spieker (CDU) – Saturday, February 21st
Alexander Bartz (SPD) – Saturday, February 28th
Anna Kebschull (independent) – Saturday March 6th
In the coming months, our editorial team will also focus on three central election campaign topics in separate reports and present the candidates’ positions on them in detail.
The waiter wants to cook
Spieker knows politics from the backstage. He was managing director of the Lower Saxony/Bremen regional group of the CDU parliamentary group, later headed the press and public relations department in the Ministry of Social Affairs for years and was in charge of communications for the Lower Saxony Medical Association from 2017 to 2023. He is also the CDU parliamentary group leader in the Gehrden city council.
He describes his previous role as follows: “I always knew who was a chef and who was a waiter. So I was a waiter. I know both perspectives.” He was the one who explained, classified, prepared – but didn’t decide. Now he wants to create. “As a district administrator, I of course have more options than as a ministerial councilor.”
Also read: AfD candidate in the Osnabrück district: “If someone in the AfD was xenophobic, …”
A district administrator, as he understands the office, has to be more than an administrator. He wants to shape, but also serve – and above all enable: create framework conditions so that things can happen for the benefit of a community.
The diplomat can also attack
Spieker appears matter-of-fact. But it becomes clear against incumbent Anna Kebschull. A few months ago she announced that she would no longer run as a Green Party candidate, but as an “individual, independent candidate”.
Spieker comments on this: “I find it embarrassing when, like Ms. Kebschull, you hide the party register under your pillow until election day. Nobody believes that.” So the diplomat can also be clear.
However, he doesn’t rely on a political show: “I won’t dance on TikTok.”
Also interesting: District election 2026: This is what CDU candidate Thomas Spieker wants to tackle in the Osnabrück district
Clinics as a core conflict
He is clearest when it comes to the topic of health care: “The district population has experienced a massive decline in the quality of medical care in recent years.”
He speaks of the “dying” of rural clinics – for example in Dissen or Ostercappeln. In his view, the district reacted strategically too late, relied too heavily on the Osnabrück regional center and failed to secure its own structures. Decisions were made elsewhere, while offers in the surrounding area were lost.
Spieker accuses the district leadership of having “systematically failed” and of allowing itself to be “ripped off” by the regional center.
Sharp criticism. Clear edge. But that’s not the whole person.
When it comes to health care in the Osnabrück region, CDU district administrator candidate Thomas Spieker shows a clear stance.
Photo: Jörn Martens
The surprising contrast
Spieker also has another side: “I’m an artist myself – I paint mostly abstract and in acrylic, sometimes in oil, but more like action painting.”
He paints on vacation, to relax, sometimes with small exhibitions. A contrast to the heavy parental living room – there above the sofa is the ascetic scholar Hieronymus with the skull as a sign of transience. In his own home in Gehrden, he describes it, an open kitchen, bright rooms and large-format, self-painted, colorful acrylic works characterize the picture – light and joy of life instead of dark walls of books.
Transience here, personal creation there.
