Schmidt in 2014 Renate Schmidt (' Pokorny; born 12 December 1943 in

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

) is a German

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

politician.

Early life

Schmidt grew up in

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...

, and

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. Due to a pregnancy at the age of 17, she was forced to leave school a year before she would have received her

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

. Her future husband, Gerhard Schmidt († 1984), with the assistance of both their families, supported her in raising the child while he attended university. In 1963 and 1970, she bore two more children. In 1974 her husband gave up his work as an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, as her salary was bigger than his. Unusual for those times, he took charge of the household and cared for the children.

Labor and political career

Having worked at Quelle AG for quite a while, Schmidt was elected to the company's

works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

in 1972; she was not required to work from 1973 to 1980, because of this. From 1980 to 1988, she was the

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 ...

n state chairwoman of the

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

HBV ; meaning Labor Union Trade, Banks and Insurances). Schmidt joined 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 ...

in 1972. In 1973, she and her husband founded a local chapter of the SPD youth organization. In 1980, she was elected to 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 1987 to 1990, she was deputy chairwoman of the SPD Fraktion in the Bundestag; from 1990 to 1994, she was Vice-President of the Bundestag. From 1994 to 2002, Renate Schmidt 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 ...

, representing the (constituency) of Nürnberg-Nord. Here again, she was the leader of the SPD group until 2000. In 1999, she announced she would retire from politics. However, she had to change her mind in 2002, for on 22 October of the same year she became Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. After the

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

took over power in 2005, Schmidt was discharged from her office and replaced by

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 an ...

. However, she had been

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a populatio ...

member of the Bundestag again. In 2009, she no longer stood for election and retired from official politics.

Later life

Schmidt lives in Nuremberg, with her second husband Hasso von Henninges. She was bestowed

honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of her hometown in 2014.

Recognition

* 2011 – Max Friedlaender PrizeMax Friedlaender Prize
Bavarian Bar Association.

Books

* Renate Schmidt: "Was ich will" Im Gespräch mit Manfred E. Berger, ECON Verlag, 1994 * Renate Schmidt: ''Mut zur Menschlichkeit'', ECON Verlag, 1995 * Renate Schmidt: ''SOS Familie. Ohne Kinder sehen wir alt aus'', Rowohlt Verlag, 2002

References

External links

*
Official website
*
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (German language)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Renate 1943 births Living people Federal government ministers of Germany Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Female members of the Bundestag Ministers for children, young people and families Women federal government ministers of Germany 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Works councillors