Barbara Anne Hendricks (born 29 April 1952) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who served asFederal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2013 until 2018.
From 2007 to 2013, Hendricks was Federal Treasurer of the SPD, and from 1998 to 2007 she was ParliamentarySecretary of State at theFederal Ministry of Finance.[1]
Barbara Hendricks was born inKleve.
After obtaining herAbitur in 1970 at theJohanna Sebus Gymnasium in Kleve, Hendricks studiedHistory andSocial Sciences inBonn, passing theStaatsexamen examination forhigh school teachers in 1976.She then worked for theAssociation for Student Affairs until 1978.After that, until 1981, she was a deputy press secretary at the press office of theBundestag parliamentary party of the SPD.In 1980 she was awarded adoctorate based on a thesis entitledDie Entwicklung der Margarineindustrie am unteren Niederrhein [The development of the margarine industry on the lower Rhine].She was then press secretary of the minister of finance of the state ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia until 1990. In 1991 she was appointedPermanent Secretary at theMinistry of the Environment, Spatial Planning and Agriculture of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Barbara Hendricks has been a member of the SPD since 1972 and has been the president of the SPD party organization for the District of Kleve since 1989. From 1984 to 1989 she was a member of theDistrict Council (Kreistag) of theRural District of Kleve. From 1990 to 2001 she was a member of the party council. From 1987 to 2001 she was a member of the state party executive of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia – as from 1996 as treasurer.
Since the1994 elections, Hendricks has been a member of theBundestag. In parliament, she served on the Finance Committee from 1994 until 1998. In addition, from October 1995 to November 1998, she was a member of the executive of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of the group’s chairmanRudolf Scharping. Hendricks was always elected to the Bundestag via the party list of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2001 she has been a member of the SPD (federal) party executive.
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Following the1998 German federal election, on 27 October 1998 Hendricks was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to theFederal Minister of Finance in the cabinet ofChancellorGerhard Schröder.
From 22 November 2005, Hendricks continued in this office in thefirst cabinet ofChancellorAngela Merkel – meaning that she was a state secretary under three finance ministers:Oskar Lafontaine,Hans Eichel, andPeer Steinbrück. She left this office on 16 November 2007, after being elected federal treasurer of the SPD.
From October 2007, Hendricks served as SPD federal treasurer, a position in which she administered the party-owned media holding Print and Publishing Society (DDVG) with stakes in regional newspapers such asHannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung,Leipziger Volkszeitung andMärkische Allgemeine.[2]
In the campaign for the2009 German federal election Hendricks was a member of the "shadow cabinet" of the SPD candidate for the chancellorship,Frank-Walter Steinmeier, where she was responsible for consumer affairs.[3] Following the elections, she served on the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development until 2013. On the committee, she was her parliamentary group’s rapporteur onheavily indebted poor countries (HIPC);poverty reduction strategies (PRSP); theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF); theWorld Bank; and theEuropean Development Fund (EDF).
In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2013 federal elections, Hendricks was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired byAngela Merkel,Horst Seehofer andSigmar Gabriel.
Until 2014 Hendricks also served as a member of the executive of the SPD Culture Forum,[4] mainly responsible for culture financing.
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From 17 December 2013, Hendricks served asFederal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in the third cabinet ofAngela Merkel.
Hendricks led the German delegations to the2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference inLima[5] and the2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference inParis. In August 2015, she was part of Chancellor Merkel’s delegation to the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany andBrazil inBrasília.[6]
In early 2015, Hendricks proposed a new draft law that imposes an outright ban onfracking forshale gas in the following years and only allow scientific test drilling under strict conditions to assess the risks and environmental impact.[7] The resulting legislation that passed the cabinet in April 2015 softened her line somewhat, restricting fracking until 2019, after which commercial fracking could only go forward after passing various tough regulatory hurdles.[8] The legislation, however, allows fracking for deep-lying or "tight" gas, a technology that has been used for decades in Germany.[7]
By early 2016, Hendricks entered in talks with various stakeholders on drawing upa plan over how to exit coal-fired power generation in Germany, later named 'Climate Action Plan 2050'.[9]
Following the2017 elections, Hendricks remained in office until 2018 but left with the newcoalition government ofChancellorAngela Merkel taking over. She joined the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she served as deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with theCono Sur States (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay). In February 2021, Hendricks said she would not contest the2021 elections.[10]
Hendricks is openly lesbian.[17] She is Catholic.[13] After the legalisation ofsame-sex marriage in Germany, Hendricks married her long-term partner Valérie Vauzanges in October 2017.[18]
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| Preceded by | Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety 2013–present | Incumbent |
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