Anita Schäfer (born 9 July 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

from 1998 until 2021. She represented the

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Pirmasens Pirmasens (; (also ''Bermesens'' or ''Bärmasens'')) is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It was famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called ''Landkreis Pirmasens ...

Political career

Schäfer became a member of the Bundestag in the

1998 German federal election The 1998 German federal election was held in Germany on 27 September 1998 to elect the members of the 14th Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) emerged as the largest faction in parliament for the first ...

. In parliament, she served on the Defense Committee. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...

, Schäfer publicly endorsed in 2020

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...

to succeed

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...

as the party's chair. In August 2020, Schäfer announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.Andreas Ganter (August 19, 2020)
Bundestagsabgeordnete Anita Schäfer macht nach über 20 Jahren Platz für die nächste Generation
''

Die Rheinpfalz ''Die Rheinpfalz'' () is a German–language regional newspaper based in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The paper is one of the leading newspapers which serve the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. History and profile ''Die Rheinpfalz'' was first published ...

''.

References

External links