Inge Dora Minna Höger (born 29 October 1950) is a German politician. From 2005 to 2006, she was a deputy chair of The Left ("Die Linke") parliamentary group in 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 ...

Early life and education

After attending elementary school and business school in Rahde, Höger trained as a

forwarding agent Forwarding may refer to: Computing and technology * Call forwarding, a telephony feature that allows calls to one phone number to be forwarded to another number ** Remote call forwarding, a telephony feature that allows call forwarding to be ac ...

from 1967 to 1969. She graduated from the

Bremen University of Applied Sciences The Bremen University of Applied Sciences ( German: ''Hochschule Bremen'') is a public ''Fachhochschule'' located in Bremen, Germany. In 1982, this University evolved from the fusion of four Universities of Applied Sciences: the Universities fo ...

in 1973 with a degree in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

Career

From 1994 onwards, Höger worked in various companies in accounting and worked in the management of AOK ("Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse") in

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

. From 1993 to 2005, she was chair of the Women's Committee of the DGB. She is also a member of Attac. Höger became a founding member of the WASG in June 2005 and was also a member of The Left. Since 2006, she has been patron of the WASG-related education community. Since 2005, Höger has been a member of the

. At the 2009 election, she unsuccessfully contested the

Herford – Minden-Lübbecke II Herford – Minden-Lübbecke II is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constitue ...

constituency, but was elected from the

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 ...

land list. At the end of May 2010, together with Annette Groth and Norman Paech, Höger accompanied a controversial international relief convoy in the

Free Gaza Movement The Free Gaza Movement (FGM) is a coalition of human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups formed to break Egypt and Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and publicise the situation of the Palestinians there. FGM has challenged the Blockad ...

. In her descriptions, she said "We felt like we were in a war, like we were being kidnapped.…Nobody had a weapon." She further stated that:

Later, the Israeli soldiers let us go outside, one by one....We were checked and our personal belongings were taken away. Then we were handcuffed with cable retainers and brought to the upper deck....They were obviously looking for weapons. They raided and slashed all the suitcases of all passengers and everything was all over the place.

Criticism of Israel

Höger is noted for her positions against Israeli policies.''Ja, es gibt Antisemiten bei uns''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

, 27. Juni 2011 In 2011, she suggested that

Juliano Mer-Khamis Juliano Mer-Khamis (; ; born Juliano Khamis; 29 May 19584 April 2011) was an Israeli–Palestinian actor, director, filmmaker, and political activist of Jewish and Palestinian Eastern Orthodox Christian parentage. On 4 April 2011, he was assass ...

and

Vittorio Arrigoni Vittorio Arrigoni (; 4 February 1975 – 15 April 2011) was an Italian journalist and activist.Johnston, NicoleVittorio Arrigoni: The man I knew. ''Al Jazeera''. 15 April 2011. He worked with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Mo ...

, two pro-

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

activists, may have been killed by Israel. On her website, Höger wrote:

"The question one must pose is: Who profits from this terrible crime? First of all, now two of the activists most 'dangerous' for Israel, because they were the most engaged, wellknown and noted, are eliminated".

Volker Beck, a German

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

MP and spokesman for the party on human rights, said "Inge Höger's wild conspiracy theory is pure speculation, without any concrete factual basis. ... She employs the centuries-old image of the perfidiously murderous Jews."

References

External links

Official website
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoger, Inge 1950 births Living people People from Diepholz (district) Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for Die Linke