Bettina Stark-Watzinger ( Stark, born 12 May 1968) is a German economist and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as Minister of Education and Research in

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born ) is a German politician who has served as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor of German ...

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

since 2021. She has been a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

from the state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

since 2017. Since 2021, she has been the chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse.

Early life and career

Stark-Watzinger graduated from high school in 1989 and subsequently studied economics at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

and the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

from 1989 to 1993. She graduated with a degree in economics. From 1994 to 1996, Stark-Watzinger completed a trainee programme at

BHF Bank ODDO BHF is an independent Franco-German financial services group. It was created from the alliance of a French family-owned business built up by five generations of stockbrokers and a German bank specialising in Mittelstand companies. With ...

in Frankfurt, where she worked as Regional Manager. This was followed by a six-year stay abroad in the United Kingdom from the end of 1996 to 2001, where she initially worked in the financial sector again in London, and a family break. From 2006 to 2008 she worked in the Academic Manager, Finance, Accounting, Controlling and Taxation Department at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. From 2008 until her election to the Bundestag in 2017, Stark-Watzinger worked as managing director in the commercial department of an interdisciplinary research institution, the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research (SAFE) at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Political career

Early beginnings

While in

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, Stark-Watzinger initially joined the

Young Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (''Young Union of Germany'') or JU is the joint youth organisation of the two conservative Germany, German Political party, political parties, Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU and Christian Social Union in Ba ...

(JU), the joint

youth organisation The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise. 0 ...

of the two conservative

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

, CDU and

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

. She later became a member of the FDP in 2004. In 2011, Stark-Watzinger was elected to the FDP leadership in Hesse, under successive chairpersons

Jörg-Uwe Hahn Jörg-Uwe Hahn (born 21 September 1956 in Kassel) is a German politician of the FDP. Life Hahn studied German law in Frankfurt am Main. From 2009 until early 2014, Hahn was minister of justice in Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: ...

(2011–2014) and

Stefan Ruppert Stefan Ruppert (born Ma 19) is a former German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse from 2009 until 2013 and from 2017 until 2020. Early life and career After graduat ...

(2014–2021). When Ruppert became chairman, he appointed her to the position of secretary general in 2015.

Member of the German Parliament, 2017–present

Stark-Watzinger first became a member of the Bundestag in the

2017 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democr ...

, representing the

Main-Taunus Main-Taunus is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 181. It is located ...

district. From 2017 until 2020, Stark-Watzinger chaired the Finance Committee. In this capacity, she also served as her parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...

on plans for a

financial transaction tax A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than real ...

. At the end of January 2020, Stark-Watzinger was elected parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag. In this capacity, she was a member of the parliament's Council of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigns committee chairpersons based on party representation. She also joined the Budget Committee, where she served as her parliamentary group's

on the

annual budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmen ...

of the

Federal Ministry of Education and Research The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (german: link=no, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, ), abbreviated BMBF, is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry provi ...

. She was a member of the so-called ''Confidential Committee'' (''Vertrauensgremium'') of the Budget Committee, which provides budgetary supervision for Germany's three intelligence services, BND,

BfV BFV may refer to: * Baden Football Association, the ''Badischer Fussball-Verband'', a regional football association in Germany * Bavarian Football Association, the ''Bayerischer Fussball-Verband'', a regional football association in Germany * Berli ...

and MAD. In addition to her committee assignments, Stark-Watzinger has been part of the German Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South Asia since 2018. Since 2019, she has been a member of the German delegation to the

Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly The Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (french: Assemblée parlementaire franco-allemande; german: Deutsch-Französische Parlamentarische Versammlung, ''DFPV'') is a joint body of the German Bundestag and the French National Assembly formed to ...

. In 2021, Stark-Watzinger was elected chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse, succeeding

. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

and the FDP following the 2021 German elections, Stark-Watzinger was part of her party's delegation in the leadership group, alongside

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Memb ...

Volker Wissing Volker Wissing (born 22 April 1970) is a German lawyer, former judge and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as the party's General Secretary since 2020, and as Minister for Transport in the federal governm ...

and Marco Buschmann.

Federal Education Minister, 2021–present

Following the 2021 federal election, the FDP entered a

government, and Stark-Watzinger took office as Minister of Education and Research in the

Scholz cabinet The Scholz cabinet (German: ''Kabinett Scholz'', ) is the current cabinet of Germany, led by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The cabinet is composed of Scholz's Social Democratic Party, Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party, an a ...

on 8 December 2021. In her capacity as minister, Stark-Watzinger is a member of the Joint Science Conference (GWK), a body which deals with all questions of research funding, science and research policy strategies and the science system that jointly affect Germany's federal government and its 16 federal states.

Other activities

* Deutsche Telekom Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees *

Volkswagen Foundation The Volkswagen Foundation (German: ''VolkswagenStiftung'') is the largest German private nonprofit organization involved in the promotion and support of academic research. It is not affiliated to the present company, the Volkswagen Group. It wa ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) *

Leibniz Association The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. As of 2020, 96 non-university research insti ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Senate (since 2022) *

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (german: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Senate (since 2022) *

German Academy of Science and Engineering Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering (german: Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften) on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of Germany, German technical sciences ...

(acatech), Ex-Officio Member of the Senate (since 2022) * German National Association for Student Affairs, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) * Bildung & Begabung, Ex-Officio Chair of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) *

Jugend forscht Jugend Forscht (literal translation: “Youth researches”) is a German youth science competition. With more than 10,000 participants annually, it is the biggest youth science and technology competition in Europe. It was initiated in 1965 by Henri ...

, Ex-Officio Chair of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) *

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) * Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2021) * Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study, Ex-Officio Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees (since 2021) *

German Future Prize The German Future Prize award is considered one of the most prestigious conferred for science and innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offer ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2021) * Villa Vigoni – German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2021) * ''Total E-Quality'' initiative, Member of the Board of Trustees *

Friedrich Naumann Foundation The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (german: Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit) (''FNF''), is a German foundation for liberal politics, related to the Free Democratic Party. Established in 1958 by Theodor Heuss, the first pres ...

, Member of the Board (since 2018) * Karl-Hermann Flach Foundation, Member of the Advisory Board * Leibniz Institute for Financial Research (SAFE), Member of the Policy Council

Personal life

Stark-Watzinger is married to real estate investor Hermann Watzinger and has two daughters.Thomas Sigmund (November 19, 2021)
Die mögliche Ministerin, die kaum jemand auf dem Schirm hat
''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...

''.

References

External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark-Watzinger, Bettina 1968 births Living people 21st-century German women politicians Education ministers of Germany Female members of the Bundestag Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) Members of the Bundestag for Hesse Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Politicians from Frankfurt Women federal government ministers of Germany Women government ministers of Germany