Katrin Helling-Plahr (; born 2 April 1986) is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who 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 Commons ...

since the 2017 election.

Early life and career

Helling-Plahr was born in

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

. From 2005 to 2011, she studied law 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 ...

. Since 2013 she has been practicing as a lawyer. From 2014 to 2015, she completed a postgraduate LL.M. program with a focus on

medical law Medical law is the branch of law which concerns the prerogatives and responsibilities of medical professionals and the rights of the patient. It should not be confused with medical jurisprudence, which is a branch of medicine, rather than a bra ...

Heinrich Heine University Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

in Düsseldorf.

Political career

Early beginnings

Helling-Plahr joined the FDP in 2005. From 2011 to 2014, she served as deputy chair of the party's youth organization, the Young Liberals.

Member of the German Parliament, 2017–present

Helling-Plahr has been a member of the German

since the 2017 federal election, representing the Hagen – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I district. In parliament, she has been serving on the Committee on Legal Affairs (since 2018) and the Committee on Health (2018–2021). From 2018 to 2021, she was also a member of the Subcommittee on Global Health and the Committee on the Election of Judges (''Wahlausschuss''), which is in charge of appointing judges to the

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...

. Since 2022, she has been serving on the parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the Highest Courts of Justice, namely the

Federal Court of Justice The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...

(BGH), the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the

Federal Fiscal Court The Federal Fiscal Court (''Bundesfinanzhof'') is one of five federal supreme courts of Germany, established according to Article 95 of the Basic Law. It is the federal court of appeal for tax and customs matters in cases which have already bee ...

(BFH), the

Federal Labour Court The Federal Labour Court (''Bundesarbeitsgericht'') is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law (mostly concerning contracts of employment) and collective labour law (e.g. cases concerning st ...

(BAG), and the

Federal Social Court The Federal Social Court (''Bundessozialgericht'') is the German federal court of appeals for social security cases, mainly cases concerning the public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident ins ...

(BSG). As a health expert, Helling-Plar has been working on issues such as egg donation and surrogacy and assisted suicide. Since the

2021 elections Many elections occurred in 2021. The National Democratic Institute maintains calendar of elections around the world * 2021 United Nations Security Council election * 2021 national electoral calendar * 2021 local electoral calendar Africa * 2021 ...

, she has been serving as her parliamentary group's spokesperson for legal affairs. In the 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 ...

between the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

, 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 FDP following the 2021 elections, Helling-Plahr was part of her party's delegation in the working group on equality, co-chaired by Petra Köpping,

Ricarda Lang Ricarda Lang (born 17 January 1994) is a German politician who is serving as co-leader of the Alliance 90/The Greens since January 2022, alongside Omid Nouripour. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021. Previously, she was co-deputy le ...

and Herbert Mertin.

Other activities

* Stiftung Forum Recht, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022)

Political positions

Along with

Karl Lauterbach Karl Wilhelm Lauterbach (; born 21 February 1963) is a German scientist, physician, and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has served as Federal Minister of Health since 8 December 2021. He is professor of health ec ...

, Swen Schulz, Otto Fricke and

Petra Sitte Petra Sitte (born 1 December 1960) is a German politician. She represents The Left. Petra Sitte has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saxony-Anhalt since 2005. Life Sitte was born in Dresden, Saxony. After graduating from ...

, Helling-Plahr was one of the authors of a cross-party initiative in 2021 to liberalize the legal framework for

assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...

in Germany. Amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully containe ...

, Helling-Plahr joined forces with six other parliamentarians – Dirk Wiese, Heike Baehrens,

Dagmar Schmidt Dagmar Schmidt (born 13 March 1973) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, since 2013. Early life and education Schmidt was born in Gießen to polit ...

, Janosch Dahmen,

Till Steffen Till Steffen (born 22 July 1973) is a German lawyer and politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since the 2021 elections, representing the Hamburg-Eimsbüttel district. From 2015 until 202 ...

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 ...

– on a cross-party initiative in 2022 to support legislation that would have required all adults to be vaccinated.

Personal life

Helling-Plahr is married to lawyer Alexander Plahr. The couple has two children.Mike Fiebig (18 June 2021)
Hagen: Auf dem Drei-Türme-Weg mit Katrin Helling-Plahr
''Westfalenpost''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helling-Plahr, Katrin 1986 births Living people German women lawyers Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians People from Hagen University of Münster alumni 21st-century German lawyers Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) 21st-century women lawyers