Heinrich "Heiner" Garg (born 9 February 1966 in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Early life and career

Garg studied economics at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

Political career

Garg first joined the FDP in 1990. In the 2000 state elections, he became a member of

Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein The Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the state parliament of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It convenes in the state's capital Kiel and currently consists of 69 members of five parties. The current majority consists of coalition of the ...

. From 2003 until 2009, he served on the Committee on Social Affairs. From 2011 Garg was the leader of party FDP in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

, succeeding

Jürgen Koppelin Jürgen Koppelin (born 14 September 1945) is a German politician ( FDP) who was a member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, from 1990 to 2013. Koppelin was born in Wesselburen. He has been a member of his party since 1962 and is a banker b ...

. From 2009 to 2012 Garg served as

's State Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs in the government of

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

Peter Harry Carstensen Peter Harry Carstensen (born 12 March 1947) is a German politician, in the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. From 2005 to 2012 he was Minister President of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, serving as ...

of Schleswig-Holstein. After leaving government, he was a member of the State Parliament's Finance Committee from 2012 until 2017. From 2017 Garg served again as

's State Minister of Health Care, Labour and Social Affairs, this time in a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

led by

Daniel Günther Daniel Günther (born 24 July 1973) is a German politician who is a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). Since 28 June 2017, he has served as the Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein. From 1 November 2018 to 31 October ...

until 2022. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he was a member of the Committee on Health, the Committee on Labour, Integration and Social Policy, and the Committee on Women and Youth. He is also a member of the German-French Friendship Group set up by the Bundesrat and the

French Senate The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 34 ...

. 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 Fo ...

(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 federal elections, Garg was part of his party's delegation in the working group on health, co-chaired by

Katja Pähle Katja Pähle (born 27 June 1977) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Since 2016, she has served as chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. She has also been deputy leader of the party's s ...

, Maria Klein-Schmeink and Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus. Garg was elected a Member of the

in the 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election.

Other activities

* Stiftung Lesen, Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

Garg lives with his partner in Kiel. In 2020, they got married.Heiner Garg hat Partner geheiratet
�''

Kieler Nachrichten The ''Kieler Nachrichten'' (literally "Kiel News") or ''KN'' is the only German-language newspaper published in Kiel, Germany. It is published by "Kieler Zeitung Verlags und Druckerei KG-GmbH & Co.", a subdivision of Axel Springer AG which owns ...

'', 19 November 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garg, Heiner Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Living people LGBT legislators in Germany 21st-century German politicians Ministers of the Schleswig-Holstein State Government Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein Politicians from Freiburg im Breisgau University of Freiburg alumni 1966 births