Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter (born 13 October 1962) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) who serves as a member of the German , the German federal parliament. In addition to her parliamentary work, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was Parliamentary State Secretary in

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

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 third (from 2013) and fourth (from 2018) cabinet. Since December 2021, has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...

's first cabinet.

Early life and education

Schwarzelühr-Sutter was born on 13 October 1962 in Waldshut in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. She studied

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 ...

at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

and

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, graduating in 1989.

Political career

Career in state politics

Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter joined the

(SPD) in 1994 and has been a member of the executive board of the SPD party organization for Waldshut since 1995. Since 2001 she has been the chairwoman of the SPD constituency party for the district of Waldshut. She was a member of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of her home town of

Lauchringen Lauchringen is a village in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is divided in two districts: Oberlauchringen and Unterlauchringen. Geography Lauchringen lies on the Rhine Plain in the lower Klettgau Klettgau (Hig ...

from 1999 to the end of 2013. Since 2004 she has also been a member of the district council of the rural district of Waldshut. Since September 2007 she has been a member of the SPD executive board in the state of

, and from 2008 to 2009 she headed the national SPD Executive Committee's working group on sustainable mobility. From 1997 to 2005 Schwarzelühr-Sutter worked as an advisor and communications coordinator/strategist for , a member of the , the German federal parliament.

Member of Parliament, 2005–present

In the

German federal election German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...

of 2005, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was elected to the as a

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

candidate. In parliament, she has since served on the Committee on Transport (2005-2009), the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (2010-2012), and the Committee on Economic Affairs and Technology (2012-2013). By 2007, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was reportedly being groomed by the SPD as a future leader. In the 2009 federal elections, she was placed at number 16 on the party list and narrowly missed re-election to the but was automatically re-elected in 2010 as designated successor following the death of Hermann Scheer. Schwarzelühr-Sutter was re-elected in the 2013 federal election. 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 the

's Christian Democrats ( CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the elections, she was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on economic policy, led by

Ilse Aigner Ilse Aigner (born 7 December 1964) is a German politician and member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). Aigner was born in Feldkirchen-Westerham, Bavaria, and entered Angela Merkel's grand coalition cabinet as Federal Minister o ...

and Hubertus Heil. On 17 December 2013, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary at the

Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (; abbreviated BMUKN) is a German Cabinet, cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has branches in Bonn and Berlin. The minis ...

in Merkel's third cabinet. In this capacity, she has represented successive ministers

Barbara Hendricks Barbara Hendricks (born November 20, 1948) is an American lyric soprano and humanitarian. Born in Arkansas, Hendricks studied chemistry and mathematics at the University of Nebraska before becoming a singer. She gained acclaim for her operatic r ...

(2013–2018) and

Svenja Schulze Svenja Schulze (born 29 September 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She served as Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 2025. Schulze has been serving as m ...

(since 2018) in political and parliamentary affairs, particularly in her designated special areas of

climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include energy conservation, conserving energy and Fossil fuel phase-out, repl ...

nuclear reactor safety Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering * Nuclear physics * Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon * Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nu ...

, conservation, and the environment and health. She has led or been a member of German delegations on various topics, including the Small Islands Development Conference for

Small Island Developing States The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a grouping of developing country, developing countries which are small island country, island countries and small states that tend to share similar sustainable development challenges. These include s ...

(SIDS 2014), the conference of the treaty states of the Biodiversity Convention (UN-CBD COP-12), and negotiations on the

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

. She represents Germany at the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) held annually at the United Nations in New York City. In addition, Schwarzelühr-Sutter served as deputy chairwoman of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2011 until 2017. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

under Merkel’s leadership following the 2017 federal elections, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was part of the working group on energy, climate protection and the environment, led by Hendricks,

Armin Laschet Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 t ...

and Georg Nüßlein. Following the 2021 state elections in Baden-Württemberg, Schwarzelühr-Sutter was part of her party's delegation in negotiations with Minister-President

Winfried Kretschmann Winfried Kretschmann (; born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the President o ...

's Alliance '90/Greens on a potential

Other activities

Regulatory bodies

* Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Posts and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Rail Infrastructure Advisory Council (2005-2009)

Corporate boards

* KfW, Member of the SME Advisory Council (since 2014)

Non-profit organizations

Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship (, alternatively translated as "(Federal) Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany") is a government-funded organisation established in 1998 by the German ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) * Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018) * (, BDU), Chairwoman of the Advisory Board (since 2014) * (GRS), Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014) *

, Member of the Advisory BoardAdvisory Board

Political positions

In July 2015, following irregularities involving the reactor pressure vessel at the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland, near the German border, and near her parliamentary constituency, Schwarzelühr-Sutter demanded the final shutdown of the power plant, which is the oldest still operating nuclear power station in the world, having gone on line in 1964. In January 2016, in response to an incident at the Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland, near the German border, and near her parliamentary constituency, Schwarzelühr-Sutter criticized the operator's attitudes to safety.

Personal life

Schwarzelühr-Sutter is married and has two children.

Notes

References

External links