Bettina Stark-Watzinger | |
|---|---|
_(3x4_cropped).jpg) Stark-Watzinger in 2023 | |
| Deputy Leader of the Free Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office 22 April 2023 Serving with Wolfgang Kubicki andJohannes Vogel | |
| Leader | Christian Lindner |
| Preceded by | Nicola Beer |
| Minister of Education and Research | |
| In office 8 December 2021 – 7 November 2024 | |
| Chancellor | Olaf Scholz |
| Preceded by | Anja Karliczek |
| Succeeded by | Cem Özdemir |
| Chairwoman of theFree Democratic Party inHesse | |
| Assumed office 27 March 2021 | |
| Deputy | Wiebke Knell Thorsten Lieb |
| Preceded by | Stefan Ruppert |
| Member of the German Bundestag fromHesse | |
| In office 24 October 2017 – 2025 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1968-05-12)12 May 1968 (age 57) |
| Political party | Free Democratic Party |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
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Bettina Stark-Watzinger (German pronunciation:[bɛˈtiːnaˈʃtaʁkˈvat͜sɪŋɐ];néeStark,[1] born 12 May 1968) is a German economist and politician of theFree Democratic Party (FDP) who served asMinister of Education and Research inChancellorOlaf Scholz'scabinet from 2021 to 2024. She was a member of theBundestag from the state ofHesse from 2017 to 2025.[2]
Since 2021, Stark-Watzinger has been the chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse.[3] Since 2023, she has been one of the three deputies ofChristian Lindner in his capacity as FDP chairman.[4]
Stark-Watzinger graduated from high school in 1989 and subsequently studied economics at theUniversity of Mainz and theGoethe University Frankfurt from 1989 to 1993. She graduated with a degree in economics.
From 1994 to 1996, Stark-Watzinger completed a trainee programme atBHF Bank in Frankfurt, where she worked as Regional Manager. This was followed by a six-year stay abroad in the United Kingdom from the end of 1996 to 2001,[5] where she initially worked in the financial sector again in London, and a family break. From 2006 to 2008 she worked in the Academic Manager, Finance, Accounting, Controlling and Taxation Department at theEuropean Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. From 2008 until her election to the Bundestag in 2017, Stark-Watzinger worked as managing director in the commercial department of an interdisciplinary research institution, the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research (SAFE) at Goethe University Frankfurt.
While insecondary school, Stark-Watzinger initially joined theYoung Union (JU), the jointyouth organisation of the two conservativeGermanpolitical parties,CDU andCSU.[6] She later became a member of the FDP in 2004.[7]
In 2011, Stark-Watzinger was elected to the FDP leadership in Hesse, under successive chairpersonsJörg-Uwe Hahn (2011–2014) andStefan Ruppert (2014–2021).[8] Ruppert appointed her to the position of secretary general in 2015.
Stark-Watzinger first became a member of the Bundestag in the2017 German federal election, representing theMain-Taunus district.[9]
From 2017 until 2020, Stark-Watzinger chaired the Finance Committee.[10][11] In this capacity, she also served as her parliamentary group'srapporteur on plans for afinancial transaction tax.[12]
At the end of January 2020, Stark-Watzinger was elected parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag.[13][14] 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. She also joined the Budget Committee, where she served as her parliamentary group'srapporteur on theannual budget of theFederal Ministry of Education and Research. She was a member of the so-calledConfidential Committee (Vertrauensgremium) of the Budget Committee, which provides budgetary supervision for Germany's three intelligence services,BND,BfV andMAD.
In addition to her committee assignments, Stark-Watzinger has been part of the German Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South Asia since 2018. Since 2019, she has been a member of the German delegation to theFranco-German Parliamentary Assembly.
In 2021, Stark-Watzinger was elected chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse, succeedingStefan Ruppert.[15]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), theGreen Party and the FDP following the2021 German elections, Stark-Watzinger was part of her party's delegation in the leadership group, alongsideChristian Lindner,Volker Wissing andMarco Buschmann.[16]
Following the2021 federal election, the FDP entered atraffic light coalition government, and Stark-Watzinger took office asMinister of Education and Research in theScholz cabinet on 8 December 2021. In her capacity as minister, Stark-Watzinger 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.
In March 2023, Stark-Watzinger became the first German minister to visitTaiwan in 26 years, leading the Chinese Foreign Ministry to file a strong protest with Germany about her "vile conduct".[17]
At the FDP's national convention in April 2023, Stark-Watzinger was elected by delegates as one of three deputies of chairmanChristian Lindner, succeedingNicola Beer.[18]
In June 2024, the German public news stationNDR revealed that under Stark-Watzinger's leadership, the Ministry of Education and Research requested investigations into whether the ministry could strip funding from signatories of an open letter criticizing the management ofFreie Universität Berlin of its behaviour concerning students who had participated in a pro-Palestinian protest camp.[19][20][21] The signatories did not comment on the situation in Israel, but pointed out the right to peaceful protest, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.[22]
Stark-Watzinger's ministry wanted to initiate an investigation into whether those who signed the letter could be prosecuted and whether their funding could be withdrawn. Ministerial secretary Sabine Döring, who was executing this policy, later said that she had "obviously expressed herself in a misleading way".[23] When this fact became public, more than 2,000 university teachers called for Stark-Watzinger to resign. Daniel Bax fromDie Tageszeitung described Stark-Watzingers behaviour as an abuse of power by the minister.[24] In a statement of the ministry from 16 June 2024, Stark-Watzinger asked ChancellorOlaf Scholz to assign Döring to temporary retirement.[25] In July 2024, Döring filed a lawsuit with the Berlin district court against the ministry to ensure that she was allowed to publicly comment on the affair.[26]
Stark-Watzinger is married to real estate investor Hermann Watzinger and has two daughters.[43]
