Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a German politician serving as Minister of Defence since July 2019 and former Leader of the Christian Democratic Union.
On 10 February 2020, Kramp-Karrenbauer announced that she would resign her position as CDU leader later in the year and would not put herself forward as a candidate for chancellor for the 2021 federal election. She was succeeded by Armin Laschet at the 2021 Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election.
Kramp-Karrenbauer previously served as secretary general of the party and as Minister-President of Saarland from 2011 to 2018, the first woman to lead the Government of Saarland and fourth woman to head a German state government. Kramp-Karrenbauer is regarded as socially conservative, but on the CDU's left wing in economic policy and has been described as a centrist. She is an active Catholic and has served on the Central Committee of German Catholics. She is the second woman to hold the office of German defence minister.