Renate Schmidt
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Social Democratic
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
politician.
Early life
Schmidt grew up in Coburg, FürthFürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....
, and Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
. Due to a pregnancy at the age of 17, she was forced to leave school a year before she would have received her Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
. Her future husband, Gerhard Schmidt (died 1984), with the assistance of both their families, supported her in raising the child while he attended university. In 1963 and 1970, she bore two more children. In 1974 her husband gave up his work as an architect
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, as her salary was bigger than his. Unusual for those times, he took charge of the household and cared for the children.
Labor and political career
Having worked at Quelle AG for quite a while, Schmidt was elected to the company's works councilWorks council
A works council is a "shop-floor" organization representing workers, which functions as local/firm-level complement to national labour negotiations...
in 1972; she was not required to work from 1973 to 1980, because of this. From 1980 to 1988, she was the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n state chairman of the labor union HBV (Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken und Versicherungen; En
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Labor Union Trade, Banks and Insurances).
Schmidt joined the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
in 1972. In 1973, she and her husband founded a local chapter of the SPD youth organization. In 1980, she was elected to the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
. From 1987 to 1990, she was deputy chairman of SPD-Fraktion in the Bundestag; from 1990 to 1994, she was Vice-President of the Bundestag.
In 1999, she announced she would retire from politics; this retirement ended, however, in 2002, and since 22 October the same year she has been Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. After the grand coalition
Grand coalition
A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government...
took over power in 2005, she was discharged from her office and replaced by Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician of the conservative Christian Democratic Union.Since 30 November 2009, she has served as the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Second Cabinet Merkel. In the First Cabinet Merkel , she served as Federal Minister of Family...
.