Bernd Fabritius (born 14 May 1965) is a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

of the

Christian Social Union of Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German language, German: , CSU) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic and Conservatism in Germany, conservative List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. Having a regionalis ...

(CSU) who has served 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 2013 to

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and again in 2021.

Early life and education

Fabritius was born in

Agnita Agnita (; german: Agnetheln; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Ongenîtlen''; hu, Szentágota) is a town on the Hârtibaciu river in Sibiu County, Transylvania, central Romania. It is considered the locality in the center of the country. The town administer ...

Sibiu County Sibiu County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Its county seat ( ro, reședință de județ) is the namesake town of Sibiu (german: Hermannstadt). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Szeben ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, and is a

Transylvanian Saxon The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ...

. He left communist Romania with his family in 1984; he has said his family and other Romanian Germans left Romania with a heavy heart and only due to state pressure of the then-communist regime. From 1985, he studied at the Bavarian University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration and Legal Affairs (FHVR). In 1996 he graduated in law from the

Ludwig Maximilian 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 sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

Member of the German Bundestag, 2013–2017

Fabritius was elected to the German Bundestag in the 2013 federal elections. He served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, its Sub-Committee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policies, and on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. On the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, he was his parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...

on discrimination. Between 2014 and 2015, Fabritius was also a member of the Committee on Affairs of the European Union, where he served as his parliamentary group's rapporteur on relations with

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and

. In 2015, he succeeded

Peter Gauweiler Peter Gauweiler (born 22 June 1949) is a German lawyer and politician of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 to 2015, representing the Munich South district. From 2013 until 2015, he al ...

as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policies. In addition to his committee assignments, he served as deputy chairman of the German-Romanian Parliamentary Friendship Group and as member of the German-Canadian Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-US Parliamentary Friendship Group. From 2014 to mid-2015, Fabritius briefly served as a full member of the German delegation to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...

, where he sat on the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and on the Sub-Committee on the Rights of Minorities. Between 2015 and 2016, he served as the Assemby’s rapporteur on the rule of law in South-East European countries. From 2016, he was the rapporteur on the reform of

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

and the rule of law in south-east European countries. In November 2014, Fabritius was elected President of the

Federation of Expellees The Federation of Expellees (german: link=no, Bund der Vertriebenen; BdV) is a non-profit organization formed in West Germany on 27 October 1957 to represent the interests of German nationals of all ethnicities and foreign ethnic Germans and their ...

(BdV), succeeding

Erika Steinbach Erika Steinbach (, born 25 July 1943) is a German right-wing politician. She previously served as a member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 2017. She was a member of the Christian Democratic Union from 1974 to 2017, and served as a member of t ...

. He has described his goal as the organisation's leader as representing the interests of all people with roots in Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe and as building bridges with those countries. While the Federation of Expellees has traditionally focused on the expellees of the 1940s, Fabritius has said he will also place emphasis on recent emigrants from Eastern Europe such as the Romanian Germans.Robert Schwartz (7 November 2014)
Bernd Fabritius – Hoffnungsträger des Bundes der Vertriebenen
''

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

''. Under the umbrella of the German parliaments’ godparenthood program for human rights activists, Fabritius has been raising awareness for the work of persecuted Ukrainian filmmaker and writer

Oleg Sentsov Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blesse ...

since 2015.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Autohaus Michael Schmidt GmbH, Member of the Advisory Board * Honterus-Verlag, Member of the Supervisory Board

Non-profits

* Bavaria-Romania for Social Assistance in Romania, Co-Founder * Carl Wolff Gesellschaft, Member of the Board of Trustees * Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Member of the Board of Trustees * German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR), Member of the Board of Trustees *

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

, Member of the General Meeting * Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees *

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, Member of the Television Board (representing the Federation of Expellees)

Political positions

In June 2017, Fabritius was one of only seven CSU members who voted in favor of Germany’s introduction of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

Personal life

Fabritius lives in a

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

with his partner; it became publicly known that he is gay in 2014.Maenner.de: Der Spiegel outet möglichen Steinbach Nachfolger (German)
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabritius, Bernd 1965 births Living people German people of German-Romanian descent Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria People from Sibiu County Naturalized citizens of Germany Romanian emigrants to Germany Romanian Lutherans Transylvanian Saxon people LGBT members of the Bundestag Gay politicians LGBT Lutherans Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria 21st-century LGBT people