Czaja served as the party's Secretary General from 2022 to 2023, under the leadership of Friedrich Merz.[1] From 2006 until 2021, he was a member of the State Parliament of Berlin.
Czaja entered the CDU in 1993 and became member of the State Parliament of Berlin in the 1999 state elections. He served as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on health policy from 2001 until 2011.[3]
From 2011 to 2016 Czaja was also member of the Senate of Berlin, the government body of Berlin, with responsibility for health care and social issues.[4][5] At the time, he was the youngest member of the state government led by Governing MayorMichael Müller.[6]
In 2012, Czaja – together fellow state ministers Frank Henkel and Thomas Heilmann – unsuccessfully advocated for a reduction in the penalty-free personal use of cannabis from 15 to six grams.[7] Also during his time in office, he appointed former state government members Eberhard Diepgen, Heidi Knake-Werner, Ingrid Stahmer and Wolfgang Wieland as advisors on the city's migration policies in 2014.[8] In 2016, Czaja cancelled the government's contract with one of the city's largest operators of hostels for asylum seekers after newspapers B.Z. and Bild printed internal emails showing the company's managers joking about building a guillotine and crematorium for refugee children.[9]
From 2018 until 2021, Czaja served as his parliamentary group's deputy chair, under the leadership of Burkard Dregger. During that time, he was also a member of the Committee on Education, Youth and Families.[11]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats' leadership election in 2022, Czaja publicly endorsed Friedrich Merz to succeed Laschet as the party's chair and joined his campaign team.[13]
In 1997, a court ordered Czaja – who was 21 years old at the time – to pay a fine of 2,000 Deutsche Mark for desertion after he had twice failed to report for duty in the German Armed Forces. The prosecution had originally demanded a suspended sentence of four months.[19]
Personal life
Czaja's brother is Sebastian Czaja. He has been married to Julia Marx since 2012.[20] They have one daughter.[21]