Cornelia Pieper (''née'' Richter; born 4 February 1959) is a German politician of the liberal

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP). She currently serves as German consul general in

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

, Poland. Pieper previously served as Minister of State at the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

under Foreign Minister

Guido Westerwelle Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person ...

in the second cabinet of

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 ...

Angela Merkel (from 28 October 2009). She was secretary general of her party from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 until 2011, she served as deputy chairwoman of the FDP, also under Westerwelle’s leadership.

Background

Pieper was born in

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

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 ...

. After her ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'' she studied Polish and Russian in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. She finished in 1982 with a

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus ...

. She worked as an interpreter in the tourism and cultural sector until 1985, after which she was employed in the IT department at a television production company in Halle. Since 1996 she has worked as a freelance translator. She was also the co-founder, first chairwoman and is now a member of the board of trustees of the Erhard Hübener Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt.

Political career

From 1987 to 1990, Pieper was engaged at the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. In 1990 she joined the FDP and became a member of the party's executive board in the State of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

. From 1990 to 1994, she was a member of the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...

in Saxony-Anhalt. From 1995 to 2011, Pieper served as chairwoman of the FDP in Saxony-Anhalt. She was also a member of the party's federal executive board. From 1997 to 2001, she was deputy chairwoman of the federal FDP. A close political ally of

, she supported him from 2001 to 2005 as the party's secretary general. In May 2005, Pieper once again was elected deputy chairwoman of the FDP. In the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, Pieper was for the first time elected into 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 ...

. There she was deputy chairwoman of the FDP's parliamentary group from 1998 to 2001. Pieper was elected top candidate of the FDP for the

2002 Saxony-Anhalt state election The 2002 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 21 April 2002 to elect the members of the 4th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) minority government led by Minister-President Reinhard Höppner was defeated. Th ...

. The party gained 13.3% of the votes. That was a satisfactory result, since the FDP hadn't even gained the necessary 5% at the previous State elections in 1998. Therefore, Pieper was one more time elected into the Landtag. Pieper served as a member of the Bundestag again from 2002 to 2013. Between October 1997 and June 2001, she was the deputy chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group and was group’s spokesperson on research policy. She was the chairwoman of the Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment from February to October 2005 and then as deputy chairwoman from November 2005 to October 2009. Between 2005 and 2009, she also served as Deputy Chairwoman of the German-Polish Parliamentary Friendship Group. Following the 2009 federal elections, Pieper was part of the FDP team in the negotiations with the CDU/CSU on a coalition agreement. She was part of the FDP delegation in the working group on education and research policy, led by Annette Schavan and

Andreas Pinkwart Andreas Pinkwart (born 1960) is a German politician and academic who served as State Minister for Economic Affairs, Digitization, Innovation and Energy in the governments of Ministers-President Armin Laschet and Hendrik Wüst of North Rhine-West ...

. From 2009 to 2013, Pieper served as the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, responsible for cultural relations and education policy. During her time in office, she publicly criticised Russia’s

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

policy, particularly after the arrest of members of the protest group Pussy Riot. In a 2012 interview with

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

, she commented: "There is no freedom of speech, freedom of opinion or freedom of the arts and culture in Russia. It makes me queasy to look at the developments currently happening in Russia." Since 2014, Pieper has been serving as German consul general in

, Poland.

Other activities

* German-Polish Science Foundation (DPWS), Chair of the Board (since 2022) * German Poland Institute, Member of the Board of Trustees * Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Member of the Board of Trustees * St Barbara Foundation, Member of the Board of TrusteesBoard of Trustees
St Barbara Foundation.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pieper, Cornelia 1959 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Saxony-Anhalt People from Halle (Saale) Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) 20th-century German women