Katja Suding (born 30 December 1975, in

Vechta Vechta (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Vechte'') is the capital and largest city of the Vechta (district), Vechta district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is home to the University of Vechta. It is known for the 'Stoppelmarkt' fair, which takes place every ...

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

from 2017 to 2021. She served as chairwoman of her party's parliamentary group in the Hamburgische Bürgerschaft from 2010 until 2017.

Early life and education

Suding grew up in

. During highschool, she spent a year in

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Cache County and Franklin ...

in 1993. Suding studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

romance studies Romance studies or Romance philology ( an, filolochía romanica; ca, filologia romànica; french: romanistique; eo, latinida filologio; it, filologia romanza; pt, filologia românica; ro, romanistică; es, filología románica) is an acade ...

at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

and graduated in 2003 as Magistra Artium. Already during her studies, she moved to Hamburg in 1999. After six years as freelance PR consultant, Suding moved to the Hamburg office of international consulting firm

Edelman Edelman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Wolf Edelman (a.k.a. Abraham Edelman; 1832–1907), Polish-born American rabbi; the first rabbi in Los Angeles, California * Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Is ...

in 2011, where she advised Diageo.

Political career

Career in state politics

Suding has been a member of the FDP since 2006. Since 2008, she has been a member of the Hamburg state executive board of the party. At the 2009 German federal election she stood unsuccessfully in

Hamburg-Altona Altona (), also called Hamburg-Altona, is the westernmost Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, urban borough (''Bezirk'') of the Germany, German States of Germany, city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to ...

. In December 2010, she was nominated as the leading candidate of the FDP to the 2011 Hamburg state election. The party had failed to gain any seats in the 2004 and 2008 elections, and the polls in 2010 predicted between three and four percent. Under Suding's leadership, the FDP managed a comeback to the Bürgerschaft with 6.7% of the votes, making it the best result since 1974 and giving them nine of the 121 seats. Suding herself was elected to the constituency of

Blankenese Blankenese () is a suburban quarter in the borough of Altona in the western part of Hamburg, Germany; until 1938 it was an independent municipality in Holstein. It is located on the right bank of the Elbe river. With a population of 13,637 as of ...

. After the state elections, her party's parliamentary group elected her as its chairwoman. In addition, she served as a member of the Budget Committee and the Audit Committee. At the national party convention of the FDP in April 2011 in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

, Suding was for the first time elected as a member of the federal executive board of the party under the leadership of chairman

Philipp Rösler Philipp Rösler (born 24 February 1973) is a German physician and former politician who served as federal minister of health from 2009–2011 and federal minister of economics and technology as well as vice-chancellor of Germany from 2011 to ...

. In 2015, she was elected the party's deputy chairperson (alongside

Wolfgang Kubicki Wolfgang Kubicki (born 3 March 1952) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) and member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 1992 and 2017 onwards. He has been vice chairman of the FDP in Germany since December 2013. Sin ...

and

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann ( Jahn, born 10 March 1958) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017. Early life and career S ...

), this time under the leadership of chairman

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Mem ...

. Suding was a FDP delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention fr ...

for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

in 2012 and 2017. In 2016, she announced that she would leave state politics and instead run for a parliamentary seat in the 2017 national elections.

Member of the German Bundestag, 2017–2021

Suding was a member of the German

from September 2017. She served as one of six deputy chairpersons of the FDP parliamentary group under the leadership of its chairman

, where she oversaw the group's activities on education policy. She also served as deputy chairwoman of the German-Italian Parliamentary Friendship Group. In the (unsuccessful) negotiations to form 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 ...

with the Christian Democrats – both the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the

Christian Social Union in Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic ...

(CSU) – and 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 ...

following the elections, she was part of the FDP delegation. In September 2020, Suding announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Life after politics

Since 2022, Suding has been a senior advisor to Rud Pedersen Public Affairs.

Other activities

* Alexander Otto Sportstiftung, Member of the Advisory Board * Übersee Club, Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

Suding is married and the mother of two sons. The family lived in

Groß Flottbek Groß Flottbek (), (''Great Flottbek'') is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Altona. It is located in the center of the borough north of the Othmarschen quarter. Near Groß Flottbek, the neighbourhood of Klein Flottbek, which is ...

. In 2012, Suding separated from her husband Christian. Since 2015, she has been in a relationship with former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player

Udo Riglewski Udo Riglewski (born 28 July 1966) is a former professional tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tenni ...

.Katja Suding liebt Ex-Tennisprofi Udo Riglewski
''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

'', 7 January 2016.

References

External links

Personal website

Facebook site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suding, Katja 1975 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Hamburg Female members of the Bundestag Women members of State Parliaments in Germany Members of the Hamburg Parliament University of Münster alumni People from Vechta 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)