Dagmar Schmidt | |
|---|---|
 Schmidt in 2017 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 2013 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1973-03-13)13 March 1973 (age 52) |
| Political party | SPD |
| Children | One |
| Alma mater | University of Gießen |
Dagmar Schmidt (born 13 March 1973)[1] is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of theBundestag, the German parliament, since 2013.
Schmidt was born inGießen to politically active parents, who were SPD members.[2] After herAbitur, she studiedhistory at theUniversity of Gießen.[1]
While she was preparing a PhD thesis about the history of the SPD, Schmidt was offered a job in the office ofLandtag of Hesse memberAndrea Ypsilanti. She continued as Ypsilanti's assistant when Ypsilanti became state SPD leader, and later became an assistant to her successor,Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.[2]
Schmidt became a SPD member when she was 16.[1] As aJuso member, she acted as an observer in the1995–96 South African municipal elections.[2]
In the2009 and2013 federal elections, Schmidt was the SPD candidate for theLahn-Dill [de] electoral district, losing out to the CDU candidate each time.[3] However, in 2013, placed sixth on the SPD party list for Hesse, she was elected to the Bundestag.[4] She also became a member of the SPD executive committee.[5] In 2017, she was re-elected, placed fourth on the SPD list for Hesse.[6] She has since been serving on the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs.[1]
Within the SPD parliamentary group, Schmidt is a leading member of the left-wing groupParlamentarische Linke.[7]
In addition to her committee assignments, Schmidt has been serving as the chair of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group since 2014.[8] In this capacity, she has met with senior Chinese political advisors likeCPPCC vice chairGao Yunlong.[9]
Since 2021, Schmidt has been serving as one her parliamentary group's deputy chairs, under the leadership of chairmanRolf Mützenich.[10][11]
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition under the leadership ofFriedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the BavarianCSU) and the SPD following the2025 German elections, Schmidt was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on labour and social affairs, led byCarsten Linnemann,Stephan Stracke andKatja Mast.[12]
Schmidt’s political positions include support forKindergrundsicherung [de], combining and extending existing benefits and subsidies to guarantee a child's right to have a certain minimum standard of living.[13][14]
Dagmar Schmidt has a son, who was born in May 2013 withDown syndrome and an associated heart defect, which required several corrective surgeries.[5] The child was not diagnosed until shortly after his birth; Schmidt had declinedprenatal testing, stating that knowing about the condition would not change anything.[15] After theGerman federal election in September 2013, Schmidt became the first single mother of a child with Down syndrome to become a member of theBundestag.[2] In a speech in a Bundestag debate about prenatal diagnostics she supported a "Willkommenskultur for all children".[16] In relation to prenatal testing, she has also argued for a "right not to know"[17] and has said that parents of children with trisomy 21 should not have to justify the right for their child to be born.[18]
