Bärbel Kofler (born 24 May 1967) is a German politician 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 Fo ...

(SPD) who has been serving as

Parliamentary State Secretary A Parliamentary State Secretary (') is a member of the Bundestag given a portfolio to assist a Minister with running a government ministry. The position is roughly analogous to deputy ministers. In 2021, there are 36 parliamentary state secretari ...

in the

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (german: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, ), abbreviated BMZ, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is ...

in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz 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 Common ...

from the state of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

since 2004. From 2016 until 2021, Kofler served as Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the

Federal Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...

in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

of Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

Political career

On 21 September 2004 Kofler moved to the Bundestag to replace the late Hans Büttner, representing the

Berchtesgadener Land Berchtesgadener Land ( Central Bavarian: ''Berchtsgoana Land'') is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the district of Traunstein and by the state of Austria. History Middle ages and early modern era The southern ...

and

Traunstein Traunstein (Central Bavarian: ''Traunstoa'') is a town in the south-eastern part of Bavaria, Germany, and is the administrative center of a much larger district of the same name. The town serves as a local government, retail, health services, ...

districts. In parliament, Kofler has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs since 2009. She has also served on the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development (2005-2016); the Sub-Committee on the United Nations (2006-2009); the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (2004-2005); and the Finance Committee (2004-2005). In addition to her committee assignments, she chaired the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2006 until 2013. Within the SPD parliamentary group, Kofler belongs to the Parliamentary Left, a left-wing movement. In the negotiations to form a '' Grand Coalition'' of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD under the leadership of Chancellor

following the

2013 elections The following elections were occurred in the year 2013. Asia * 2013 Armenian local elections 26 May, 17 November, and 8 December 2013 * 2013 Armenian presidential election 18 February 2013 * 2013 Bangladeshi presidential election 22 April 2013 ...

, Kofler was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on the environment and agriculture, led by

Katherina Reiche Katherina Reiche (born 16 July 1973 in Luckenwalde, Bezirk Potsdam) is a German manager and former politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Education After receiving her Abitur in 1992, she studied chemistry at the University of Po ...

and Ute Vogt. In similar negotiations following the 2017 federal elections, she was part of the working group on foreign policy, led by

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding suc ...

, Gerd Müller and

Sigmar Gabriel Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

. 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 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 f ...

and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 federal elections, Kofler was again part of her party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, this time co-chaired by

Heiko Maas Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protectio ...

Omid Nouripour Omid Nouripour ( fa, امید نوری‌پور; born 18 June 1975) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2006, representing the state of Hesse. Since 2022, he has also been ...

and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff.

Other activities

* action medeor, Member of the advisory board (since 2016) * Aktion Deutschland Hilft (Germany's Relief Coalition), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2016) * German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2016) * Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF), Member of the supervisory board (since 2014) *

German Foundation for World Population DSW (german: Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung) is an international non-governmental organisation addressing Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) and population dynamics. DSW funds its project and advocacy work from private donations and the finan ...

(DSW), Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board * IG BCE, Member *

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: ''Industriegewerkschaft Metall'', "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of Ge ...

, Member * German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), Member of the Board of Trustees (2014-2016)Bärbel Kofler
SPD Parliamentary Group.

References

External links