michael mertes (born 26 march 1953 in bonn) is a german chief officer and author. he was a political advisor to chancellor helmut kohl from 1987 to 1998, and he served in the state government of north rhine-westphalia (nrw) as the state’s representative to the german federal institutions and to the european union from 2006 to 2010. from june 2011 to july 2014, he was resident representative of the konrad adenauer foundation (kas) to israel in jerusalem.