Birgit Pommer (née Ehrhardt, previously Keller, born 28 January 1959) is a German politician of The Left who has served as President of the

Landtag of Thuringia The Landtag of Thuringia is the parliament of the German federal state of Thuringia. It convenes in Erfurt and currently consists of 90 members from six parties. According to the free state's constitution, the primary functions of the Landtag ...

since November 2019. She is the first member of her party to serve as speaker of any state parliament. Prior, she served as Minister for Infrastructure and Agriculture in the first Ramelow cabinet.

Personal life

Pommer's father was an economist and her mother a teacher. Both were members of the National Democratic Party in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. She graduated from polytechnic high school in 1975, but was unable to take her Abitur since she came from an "intelligentsia" family. After vocational training as an electrician, she worked as a research assistant in the field of heavy current plant engineering from 1977 to 1982. From 1983 to 1988, she completed a correspondence course of study and graduated with a degree in

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

. From 1989 to 1991, Pommer worked as a kindergarten teacher. Between 1995 and 2004, she was a staff member in a constituency office. Pommer adopted her surname upon marrying Reiner Pommer in 2022. Previously, she was known as Birgit Keller. She has two children as well as three grandchildren from her previous marriage.

Political career

Pommer joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the ruling party of East Germany, in 1977. She was a staffer for the

Free German Youth The Free German Youth (german: Freie Deutsche Jugend; FDJ) is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The organization was meant ...

district leadership from 1983 to 1988, then a staffer of the SED district leadership from 1988 to 1989. In 1989, Pommer sat at the

East German Round Table Round table primarily refers to the Central Round Table (''Zentraler Runder Tisch''), a series of meetings during the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany in late-1989 and early-1990. The Round table first convened in East Berlin on 7 December ...

as a representative of the SED. After German reunification, she remained a member of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). From 1990 to 1992, she was a member of the presidium of the party's Thuringia branch; she also stood for election as state chairwoman, but lost to

Gabi Zimmer Gabriele "Gabi" Zimmer (born 7 May 1955) is a German politician who served as leader of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) from 2000 to 2003. After leaving office as leader, she was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2019. Zi ...

. Since 1994, Pommer has been a member of the Nordhausen district council. She served as council president from 1996 to 2006, after which time she became chairwoman of her party's faction. She is a member of the Committee for Environment, Agriculture and Forestry. In the 2009 municipal election, she was elected to the Nordhausen City Council. Pommer ran unsuccessfully in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

state elections. She was elected in the 2009 election in seventh place on The Left party list. In the Landtag, she served as budget policy spokeswoman for her parliamentary group. Pommer was elected district administrator of the

Nordhausen district Nordhausen is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise): Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz in Saxony-Anhalt; Kyffhäuserkreis and Eichsfeld in Thuringia; and Göttingen and Goslar in ...

in 2012, defeating CDU candidate Egon Primas. She subsequently resigned from the Landtag, and did not run for re-election in 2014. On 5 December 2014, Pommer was appointed Minister for Infrastructure and Agriculture in the first cabinet of Minister-President Bodo Ramelow. She ran for election to the Landtag again in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, and was elected as representative for the Nordhausen I constituency, winning 32.3% of votes. She resigned from cabinet after being elected President of the Landtag on 26 November, becoming the first member of her party to hold this office in any state parliament. She won 52 votes to 28 against, with 10 abstentions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pommer, Birgit 1959 births Living people The Left (Germany) politicians Members of the Landtag of Thuringia Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians 21st-century German politicians 21st-century German women politicians Women government ministers of Germany