Renate Schmidt (néePokorny; born 12 December 1943 inHanau) is a GermanSocial Democratic politician.
Schmidt grew up inCoburg,Fürth, andNuremberg. Due to a pregnancy at the age of 17, she was forced to leave school a year before she would have received herAbitur. Her future husband, Gerhard Schmidt († 1984), with the assistance of both their families, supported her in raising the child while he attended university. In 1963 and 1970, she bore two more children. In 1974 her husband gave up his work as anarchitect, as her salary was bigger than his. Unusual for those times, he took charge of the household and cared for the children.
Having worked atQuelle AG for quite a while, Schmidt was elected to the company'sworks council in 1972; she was not required to work from 1973 to 1980, because of this. From 1980 to 1988, she was theBavarian state chairwoman of thelabor union HBV(Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken und Versicherungen; meaning Labor Union Trade, Banks and Insurances).
Schmidt joined theSPD in 1972. In 1973, she and her husband founded a local chapter of the SPD youth organization. In 1980, she was elected to theBundestag. From 1987 to 1990, she was deputychairwoman of the SPD Fraktion in the Bundestag; from 1990 to 1994, she wasVice-President of the Bundestag.
From 1994 to 2002, Renate Schmidt was a member of theLandtag of Bavaria, representing theWahlkreis (constituency) of Nürnberg-Nord. Here again, she was the leader of the SPD group until 2000.
In 1999, she announced she would retire from politics. However, she had to change her mind in 2002, for on 22 October of the same year she becameFederal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. After thegrand coalition took over power in 2005, Schmidt was discharged from her office and replaced byUrsula von der Leyen. However, she had beenelected member of the Bundestag again. In 2009, she no longer stood for election and retired from official politics.
Schmidt lives in Nuremberg, with her second husband Hasso von Henninges. She was bestowedhonorary citizenship of her hometown in 2014.[1]
| Preceded by | Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth of Germany 2002-2005 | Succeeded by |
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