Helin Evrim Sommer (née Evrim Baba; born 7 February 1985) is a German politician, a former member of the

Berlin House of Representatives The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (House of Deputies) () is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993 the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchne ...

and of the German

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 ...

for the state of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. She was a member of The Left party until May 2022.

Early life and education

Sommer was born as Hêlîn Evrim Baba in

Varto Varto (, ku, Gimgim, grc-x-medieval, Barzanissa) is a town and district in Muş Province, Turkey. The population of Varto city is around 13,000 with another 17,000 living in the villages. The largest population from Varto in Europe is in Berlin ...

, Turkey. Her

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

name Hêlîn was not allowed at the time in Turkey, so her parents named her Evrim, which translates into evolution in Turkish. Her family is of Kurdish Alevi origin. Her father was persecuted for his activity as a socialist trade unionist. After the 1980 coup d'état, the family fled to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

. After completing her language training, Hêlîn Evrim Sommer passed the state examination for interpreters and translators in 1997 and ran a translation agency until 2000. She worked as an interpreter, translator and expert for notaries and courts as well as for the Federal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees in Berlin and Brandenburg. From 2005 to 2007 she studied Social Sciences at the

Humboldt University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of ...

of Berlin, followed by History and Gender Studies. She completed her studies in November 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Political career

Sommer joined the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) in 1997. Two years later she was elected to the Berlin state parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus), where she represented the borough of Lichtenberg until 2016. The PDS merged into The Left party in 2007 and Sommer served as the chairman of the local chapter of that party in

Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen. Overview The district contains the Tierpark Berlin in Friedrichsfelde, the larger of Berlin's ...

from 2012 to 2016. In that year, she ran for the mayor's office of the Lichtenberg borough. She renounced her candidacy after failing to win a majority in the first two ballots, lacking support from some members of her own party. There were accusations that she had falsely claimed an academic degree before completing it, which proved to be untrue. At 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 ...

she was elected member of the German Bundestag. She was a member of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, a delegate to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (OSCE PA) is an institution of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The primary task of the 323-member Assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue, an important aspect of the o ...

and the deputy chair of the German–Transcaucasian parliamentary co-operation group. In the Parliamentarian Election of 2021 she was a candidate, but was not elected when her party failed to meet the electoral threshold. In May 2022 she resigned from the Die Linke also because of the pro-Russian views several The Linke politicians had, regarding the Russian invasion into the Ukraine.

Personal life

She grew up in

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelh ...

in the west, but later settled into

in the east . In 2009 she married the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

historian

Robert Sommer Robert Sommer (April 26, 1929February 27, 2021) was an internationally known Environmental Psychologist and held the position of Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

with who she has one child.

References

External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommer, Evrim 1971 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Berlin Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians German people of Kurdish descent Kurdish Alevis Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for The Left 21st-century Kurdish women politicians