Overview

• Jan Riedel, 43, officially took office as Education Minister after serving as principal of Halle’s Lyonel-Feininger-Gymnasium and teaching German and history at regional schools.
• He succeeded CDU colleague Eva Feußner, who was dismissed by Minister President Reiner Haseloff following weeks of conflict with the party’s Landtag faction and school representatives.
• Riedel acknowledged that the chronic shortage of teachers cannot be resolved immediately, underscoring the need for realistic timelines and solutions.
• He emphasized that school leaders already have pragmatic ideas for maintaining high-quality instruction through creative staffing arrangements and new teaching models.
• The leadership change reflects ongoing CDU factional tensions over unilateral policy moves and sets the stage for a contested party leadership decision ahead of the 2026 state election.