Awet Tesfaiesus | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Tesfaiesus in 2022 | |
| Member of the Bundestag forHesse | |
| Assumed office 26 September 2021 | |
| Succeeded by | Multi-member district |
| Constituency | Greens list |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1974-10-05)5 October 1974 (age 51) |
| Political party | Greens |
| Children | 1[1] |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Awet Tesfaiesus (Tigrinya:ዓወት ተስፋየሱስ; born 5 October 1974) is a German politician fromAlliance 90/The Greens who serves as a member of theBundestag from the state ofHesse since 2021. Previously a lawyer who represented asylum seekers and refugees, Tesfaiesus was elected as a city councillor for the city ofKassel in 2016. Tesfaiesus was elected in the2021 German federal election and re-elected in the2025 elections as a member of the Green Party list in the state ofHesse. She is the first black woman to ever be elected to the Bundestag[1] and still after the 2025 election continues to be the only black woman serving in the federal Parliament of Germany.
Tesfaiesus has been a member ofAlliance 90/The Greens since 2009.[2] After expressing concern over theAlternative for Germany's entry into the Kassel city council as a result of increased anti-immigrant sentiments, she decided to enter municipal politics to become a city councillor. She was elected to Kassel's city council in 2016 and introducedanti-discrimination legislation inspired by her experiences dealing with racism in her daily life. Tesfaiesus cited her experience of being shut out of being offered apartments due to her surname, only to have her German-born husband call and be accepted.[3]
Tesfaiesus also cited the 2020Hanau shootings, where a far-right extremist engaged in a racially motivated mass shooting in Hesse, her home state, as her reason for entering national politics.[2][3] She had previously considered withdrawing from the political scene, but was incentivized to step forward in response to the xenophobic attacks.[4]
Tesfaiesus ran as a direct candidate inWerra-Meißner – Hersfeld-Rotenburg constituency in the2021 federal election[1] and placed fourth. Tesfaiesus' campaign slogan was "courage to change".[3] She was in ninth position on the Greensparty list for the state of Hesse,[5] and was elected to the Bundestag.[6] Tesfaiesus became the first black woman elected to theBundestag in what was a younger and more ethnically diverse Bundestag cohort than previously.[7][4][8] In the 2025 federal election she was again elected to the Bundestag after she won a contested fifth place on the party list.[9]
Tesfaiesus aims to remove barriers to naturalization within Germany, including lifting restrictions imposed by thedual citizenship status.[3] Tesfaiesus wished to use her platform to demonstrate to people who did not "look German" that they had a place within Germany's society and political culture.[3] In her second term Tesfaiesus serves on the Committee on Culture and the Media and on the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection and leads the party's parliamentary work onAI,copyright law,artists' remuneration, digital discrimination and international aspects of cultural affairs.
Tesfaiesus was born inAsmara in 1974. Her family had sought asylum in Germany to escape political persecution, as her father was sought out by the Ethiopian police due to his support for Eritrean independence.[3] Her family emigrated to the city ofHeidelberg[1] when Tesfaiesus was ten years old.[8]
Growing up, she failed to see anyAfro-German representation on television, with the only exceptions being African Americans while she was watchingMTV after midnight in the morning. She received aid from individuals who supported her in her childhood, including teachers and church groups, and she decided to pursue a career which would help repay their efforts.[3] In her everyday life, she experienced individuals who would initially speak to her in English assuming that she was a foreigner. Tesfaiesus eventually was able to become a German citizen, and after contemplating it in 1996, she subsequently accepted the offer.[3]
Besides being fluent inGerman, Tigrinya andEnglish, she speaksArabic andFrench and understands someHindi,Amharic andHebrew.[11] Tesfaiesus lives in a religiously diverse family with members beingCatholic,Protestant,Christian Orthodox,Muslim,Jewish andhumanist, while she herself is a member of theUnited Protestant church.[12] Her first name means "victory" in theTigrinya language.[2]
Tesfaiesus studied law and moved toKassel in northern Hesse, where she had lived for the past 20 years. Tesfaiesus primarily focuses on cases pertaining to foreigners and asylum law, and often represented asylum seekers and refugees.[2][1]
Tesfaiesus had considered moving toBelgium with her 10-year-old son and husband following theHanau shootings and the elevated xenophobia which had been the cause for the incident.[3]
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