Date of case: May 2023

Trauzeugen-Affaire, as it is famously called, created a political stir around the appointment of a new chair to the management board of the federally-owned German Energy Agency (DENA). One of the candidates for the position was Michael Schäfer, who was also the ‘best man’ at Mr Patrick Graichen's wedding. Graichen being the state secretary with the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, was part of the 3-person selection committee that interviewed candidates for the position and made recommendations to the supervisory board of the DENA. The affiliation and potential conflict of interest were only disclosed by Graichen on 24 April 2023 after the case had been reported on by the media.

On 4 May, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group brought the case in front of an investigative committee. The next day the supervisory board of DENA decided to restart the selection process for the position - Schäfer however was excluded from it.

On 10 May, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group brought this case in front of the German parliament and Graichen and Robert Habeck, the minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, were questioned before the relevant committees. On 16 May, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group announced their intent to call another hearing of Habeck and Graichen. This hearing never took place due to an announcement on 17 May that Graichen is retiring early, a decision taken by Habeck due to the unveiling of another case where Graichen failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest in the award of a climate project worth Euros 600,000 (around US$ 630,000) to the NGO BUND - Friends of the Earth Germany, where his sister is a board member.