Anja Karliczek | |
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| Minister of Education and Research | |
| In office 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Johanna Wanka |
| Succeeded by | Bettina Stark-Watzinger |
| Member of theBundestag forSteinfurt III | |
| Assumed office 22 September 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Dieter Jasper |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anja Maria-Antonia Kerssen (1971-04-29)29 April 1971 (age 54) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Spouse | Lothar Karliczek |
| Children | 3 |
| Signature |  |
Anja Maria-Antonia Karliczek (néeKerssen; born 29 April 1971) is a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who served asMinister of Education and Research inChancellorAngela Merkel'sfourth cabinet from 2018 to 2021.[1]
Karliczek was born inIbbenbüren and grew up inTecklenburg. After an apprenticeship atDeutsche Bank inOsnabrück, she moved to work in her family's hotel in 1993. While raising a family and working full-time, Karliczek studiedbusiness administration atUniversity of Hagen from 2003 until 2008, with a diploma thesis analysing the fiscal advantages of transferring pension obligations from the employer’s point of view.
Karliczek joined the CDU in 1998 and became the party's local chair in Tecklenburg in 2011.
Karliczek has been a member of theBundestag since the2013 elections, representingSteinfurt III.[2] Between 2013 and 2018, she was a member of the Finance Committee, where she served as theCDU/CSU parliamentary group’srapporteur onoccupational and fully funded pension schemes andemployee shareholding. From 2017, she also served as deputy ofMichael Grosse-Brömer in his role asFirst Secretary of the parliamentary group. In this capacity, she was a member of the parliament’sCouncil of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigns committee chairpersons based on party representation.
In addition to her committee assignments, Karliczek is a member of the German-Slovenian Parliamentary Friendship Group.[3] Within theCDU/CSU, she is a member of MIT, its pro-business wing. She also belongs to the Münsterland Circle (Münsterlandrunde) which brings together all parliamentarians from the eponymous region inWestphalia; it also includesSybille Benning andJens Spahn, among others.
Since the2021 elections, Karliczek has been serving on the Committee on Tourism and the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection. From 2021 to 2025, she was also her parliamentary group’s spokesperson for tourism.[4]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government of the CDU andGreen Party underMinister-President of North Rhine-WestphaliaHendrik Wüst following the2022 state elections, Karliczek led her party’s delegation in the working group on research, innovation and digitization.[5]
Since 2025, Karliczek has been serving as chairwoman of the German Parliament's Committee on Tourism.[6]
In her capacity as minister, Karliczek was a member of the Joint Science Conference (GWK), a body which deals with all questions of research funding, science and research policy strategies and the science system that jointly affect Germany’s federal government and its 16 federal states.
During Karliczek’s term, the German government introduced annual incentives worth 1.25 billion euros in 2019 aimed at supporting corporate research and development and boosting investments in cutting-edge technologies.[7] In 2021, she publicly opposed proposals from the European Commission to restrict the right of scientists based in non-EU countries to collaborate in EU-funded projects on sensitive parts of the bloc’s €90 billionHorizon Europe scientific co-operation programme.[8]
As a representative of the German government, Karliczek was part of the delegation accompanyingPresident Emmanuel Macron ofFrance on his state visit toChina in November 2019.[9]
In June 2017, Karliczek voted against Germany’s introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[22] In 2018, she faced criticism after she questioned Germany's decision to recognize marriage equality in a television interview.[23]
In November 2018, Karliczek successfully suggested to ease the terms of the5G build-out plan for network providers, declaring "we don't need 5G internet next to every milk churn". This was supposed to allow a slower proliferation of fast mobile internet in large parts of Germany in exchange for a larger amount to be gained by the federal government from the auction offrequency bands to operators.
She marriedEurowings pilot[24] Lothar Karliczek in 1995; they have three children.[25]
Media related toAnja Karliczek at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of Education and Research 2018–2021 | Succeeded by |
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