Margarete Bause (born 19 January 1959) is a German politician of

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

. She was a member of the

Landtag of Bavaria The Landtag of Bavaria, officially known in English as the Bavarian State Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Bavaria. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum in Munich. Elections to the Landtag are held every f ...

from 1986 to 1990 and from 2003 to 2017 before serving as 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 ...

from 2017 until 2021, where she was her parliamentary group's spokeswoman for human rights and humanitarian aid.

Early life and education

Margarete Bause was born in Wertheim. After passing the ''Abitur'' in Landsberg, she studied

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

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

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

Political career

Bause became a member of the Green party in 1986 and was one of their state chairs in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

from 1991 to 1993 and 1998 to 2003. From 1986 until 1990 and from

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

until 2017, Bause served as a member of the

. In that capacity, she was her parliamentary group's co-chair. From 2004 until 2007, she was also part of the parliamentary inquiry into

Monika Hohlmeier Monika Hohlmeier (née Strauß, born 2 July 1962) is a German politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2009. She is a member of the Christian Social Union, part of the European People's Party. Between 19 ...

over allegations Hohlmeier – during her time as member of the state government – allowed party votes to be falsified and got jobs for friends. Bause became a member of the German

in the

2017 elections The following elections occurred in 2017. Africa * 2017 Somali presidential election 8 February 2017 *2017 Gambian parliamentary election 6 April 2017 * 2017 Algerian legislative election 4 May 2017 *2017 Lesotho general election 3 June 2017 *2 ...

, representing Munich. In parliament, she served on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. She was also her parliamentary group's spokesperson on human rights. In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-Belarusian Parliamentary Friendship Group. From 2020, Bause served as co-chair of the

Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) is an international, cross-party alliance of parliamentarians from democratic countries focused on relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and specifically, the Chinese Communist Party ...

(IPAC).

Other activities

Corporate boards

Umweltbank The Umweltbank AG is a German direct bank that exclusively finances ecological loan projects with its customer deposits. Corporate philosophy The Umweltbank has the objective of contributing to the protection of the environment through its busin ...

, Member of the Advisory Board

Non-profit organizations

Munich School of Philosophy Munich School of Philosophy (German: ''Hochschule für Philosophie München'') is a small Jesuit higher education college in Munich, Germany founded in 1925. History Founded as a seminary at Pullach in 1925 by Augustin Bea, first named the Ber ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees * Wings of Hope Deutschland, Member of the Board of Trustees * Bayerisches Amerikahaus, Member of the Advisory Board (2014-2017) *

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...

, Member of the Broadcasting Council (1990-1998)

Political positions

Bause is active in the area of human rights in China and supportive of the

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...

; her constituency, Munich, is home to the majority of Uighurs living in Germany as well as to the headquarters of the

World Uyghur Congress The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's R ...

. In 2014, Bause made headlines when — on a visit to China with a delegation from the Bavarian state parliament — she secretly met with dissident artist

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly c ...

and later released photos of the meeting. In August 2019, after asking the German government to support sending UN observers to

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

province, Bause was denied entry to China. The remaining members of the German Bundestag delegation subsequently cancelled their planned China trip.

References

External links

Personal homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bause, Margarete 1959 births Living people Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Female members of the Bundestag Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Members of the Landtag of Bavaria Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for Alliance 90/The Greens People from Wertheim am Main 21st-century German women politicians