Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks
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Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks (born 8 May 1956) is a German politician (
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...
) who served as State Minister (''Senator'') for Health and Consumer Protection of the city state of
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
in the Senates
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, II and Tschentscher from 2011 until 2020.


Early life and career

Prüfer-Storcks was born in
Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
. After graduating from high school in 1975 and completing a journalistic traineeship, she initially worked as an editor, among others at the
Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
newspaper of ''
Ruhr Nachrichten ''Ruhr Nachrichten'' is a daily newspaper that has been published in Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-larges ...
''. In 1988, she joined the State Chancellery of the State of
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
as a consultant. Two years later she joined the newly established Equal Rights Ministry as press spokeswoman. In 1995, she became head of the Department of Women's Politics there.


Political career

From 1998 to 1999 Prüfer-Storcks was Deputy Secretary of State of Karl Pröbsting in the State Ministry of Women, Youth, Family and Health of North Rhine-Westphalia. After his death in 1999, she was appointed his successor. Until the change of government in 2005, Prüfer-Storcks was State Secretary in the Ministry, which was renamed the State Ministry of Health, Social Affairs, Women and Family in 2002 as part of the reorganization of the ministries. From 2007 until her appointment to the
Hamburg Senate The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ...
, she was a member of the board of the health insurance of '' AOK Rheinland / Hamburg''. Following the 2011 state elections, Prüfer-Storcks has been Senator of the city state of Hamburg. From 23 March to 30 April 2011, she was President of the Department of Social Affairs, Family, Health and Consumer Protection for the sector of Health and Consumer Protection. After hiving off individual departments and the new formation of the Authority for Health and Consumer Protection, she took over on 1 May 2011 as President of this authority. As one of the state’s representatives at the Bundesrat since 2011, she is a member of the Committee on Health. In the negotiations to form a ''
Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...
'' of
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Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...
's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Prüfer-Storcks was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on health policy, led by
Jens Spahn Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag (, MdB), for Steinfurt I – Borken I since 2002. Since 2025, he ...
and
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 served as Federal Minister of Health from 2021 to 2025. He is professor of health economics ...
. Appointed by Federal Minister of Health
Hermann Gröhe Gottfried Hermann Gröhe (born 25 February 1961) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister of Health in the third cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. Early life an ...
, she served as member of an expert commission on the reform of Germany’s hospital care from 2015 until 2017.


Controversy

Prüfer-Storcks became widely known in May / June 2011 in connection with the Northern European EHEC epidemic. After cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes were initially suspected of causing the outbreak, sprouts soon became the focus of investigation, with evidence of traceability of delivery routes. Later it was determined that the pathogens probably came from Egypt to Germany via fenugreek seeds that were used to produce lettuce sprouts. In the meantime, especially cucumbers were in the focus of public interest, as investigations by the Hamburg Institute of Hygiene had found an EHEC pathogen on cucumbers from
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. However, as emerged in the following investigations of the institute and was rectified by the authority immediately, this was not the causative agent responsible for the outbreak. The
Spanish government The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the o ...
then announced that it was investigating a claim for damages against Germany..


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prufer-Storcks, Cornelia 1956 births Living people Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Senators of Hamburg Politicians from Essen