Sahra Wagenknecht | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Wagenknecht in 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of theSahra Wagenknecht Alliance | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 January 2024 – 10 November 2025 Serving with Amira Mohamed Ali | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Secretary | Christian Leye | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Shervin Haghsheno | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Fabio De Masi | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of theSahra Wagenknecht Alliance in theBundestag | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 11 December 2023 – 25 March 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whip | Jessica Tatti | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Klaus Ernst | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 12 October 2015 – 24 October 2017 Serving with Dietmar Bartsch | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Gregor Gysi | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Alice Weidel Alexander Gauland | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader ofThe Left in theBundestag | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 12 October 2015 – 12 November 2019 Serving with Dietmar Bartsch | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whip | Jan Korte | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Gregor Gysi | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Amira Mohamed Ali | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1969-07-16)16 July 1969 (age 56) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | BSW (2023–present) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Merzig-Silwingen | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | sahra-wagenknecht | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Sahra Wagenknecht (German:[ˌzaːʁaˈvaːɡŋ̍ˌknɛçt]; 16 July 1969)[1] is a German politician.[2] She was a member of theBundestag from2009 to2025, where she representedThe Left until 2023. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, Wagenknecht left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her ownEurosceptic,populist party,Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which unsuccessfully contested the2025 federal election, narrowly failing the5% threshold.[3] Since 2025, she no longer holds any public office.
Wagenknecht became a prominent member of thePDS from the early1990s. After the foundation of The Left in 2007, she was a leading member of one of the party's most left-wing factions as leader of theCommunist Platform. Her economic views shifted since then. In 2011, she laid them out in her bookFreedom instead of Capitalism, in which she analysed Germany’s economic policy at the time of theeuro crisis and criticised it on the basis ofordoliberalism.
She was one of the main driving forces in the formation ofAufstehen, a left-wing political movement established in 2018, which exists outside of traditional political party structures and has been compared to the French movementLa France Insoumise. She has made some controversial statements about immigration and refugees and gender affirming care.[4][5][6][7] From 2020 onward Wagenknecht was less active inBundestag, but was often interviewed by German media. Bundestag (2021-2025), she wasn't a member of any parliamentary committee.[8]
Since 2021 she had openly considered forming her own party, due to growing and enduring conflicts within the Left Party. At the end of September 2023 Wagenknecht formed theSahra Wagenknecht Alliance political party, better known as BSW (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht). She ran as theChancellor candidate of the BSW in the2025 German federal election. In November 2025 she announced her resignation as leader of BSW.[9]
Wagenknecht was born on 16 July 1969 in theEast German city ofJena.[10][11] Her father, who isIranian, came toWest Berlin to study;[7][12][13][14] her mother, who worked for a state-run art distributor, is German. Her father disappeared in Iran when she was a child. She was cared for primarily by her grandparents until 1976, when she and her mother moved toEast Berlin. While in Berlin, she became a member of theFree German Youth (FDJ).[15] She completed herAbitur exams in 1988 and joined the (then ruling)Socialist Unity Party (SED) in early 1989.[16][17][18]
In 1990, theGDR dissoluted. From 1990, Wagenknecht studied philosophy andmodern German literature as an undergraduate in Jena and Berlin, completing the mandatory coursework, but did not write a thesis as she "could not find support for her research aims at the East BerlinHumboldt University". She then enrolled as a philosophy student at theUniversity of Groningen, completing her studies and earning an MA in 1996 for a thesis on the youngKarl Marx's interpretation ofHegel, supervised byHans Heinz Holz and published as a book in 1997.[16][17] From 2005 until 2012 she completed a PhD dissertation inmicroeconomics atTU Chemnitz, on "The Limits of Choice: Saving Decisions and Basic Needs in Developed Countries", awarded with the grademagna cum laude in theGerman system.[19][20]
After the fall of theBerlin Wall and the transformation of the SED into theParty of Democratic Socialism (PDS), Wagenknecht was elected to the new party's National Committee in 1991. She also joined the PDS'sCommunist Platform, aMarxist-Leninist faction.[17]
In the1998 German federal election, Wagenknecht ran as the PDS candidate in a district ofDortmund, garnering 3.25% of the vote. In the2004 European election, she was elected as a PDS representative to theEuropean Parliament. Among her duties in the parliament were serving on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Delegation, as well as the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.[17][21]
Wagenknecht successfully contested a seat in the2009 federal election inNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[22] She became the Left Party's spokesperson for economic politics in theBundestag. On15 May 2010, she was at last electedvice president of the Left Party with 75.3% of the vote.
Early in 2012, the German press reported that Wagenknecht was one of 27 Left PartyBundestag members whose writings and speeches werebeing collected and analyzed by theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.[23]
She was one of the main driving forces in the formation ofAufstehen, a left-wing political movement established in 2018, which exists outside of traditional political party structures and has been compared to the French movementLa France Insoumise.[24] In March 2019, Wagenknecht announced her withdrawal from her leadership role within Aufstehen, citing personal workload pressures and insisting that after a successful start-up phase, for which political experience was necessary, the time had come for the movement's own grass roots to assume control. She complained that the involvement of political parties at its heart had "walled in" the movement. She would nonetheless continue to make public appearances on its behalf.[25][26]
Wagenknecht was elected co-leader of the Left's Bundestag group in 2015 alongsideDietmar Bartsch succeeding long-time leaderGregor Gysi. Wagenknecht won 78.4% of votes cast.[27] As the Left was at the time the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, she became a prominent leader of the opposition for the remainder of the parliamentary term. Bartsch and Wagenknecht were the Left's lead candidates for the2017 federal election.[28]
The biographySahra Wagenknecht. Die Biografie byChristian Schneider [de] was published in 2019 and focuses on Wagenknecht as a person, including her family background and interest inJohann Wolfgang von Goethe.[29] In November 2019, she announced her resignation as parliamentary leader, citingburnout.[30] Her activities from 2017 to 2019, culminating with her resignation, are covered in the 2020 documentary filmWagenknecht [de], directed bySandra Kaudelka.[31]
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Wagenknecht was again nominated as the lead candidate on the party's North Rhine-Westphalia list in the2021 federal election. She was re-elected, but described the results as a "bitter defeat" for her party.[32]
Due to the growing conflicts within Die Linke, Wagenknecht considered forming her own party. There was speculation since 2021 that her faction and other like-minded groups within Die Linke, such as the Socialist Left or the Karl Liebknecht circles, would break off to form a separate party.[33][34] Policy-wise, the new party was expected to follow a left-nationalist strategy.
At the end of September 2023, people from Wagenknecht's circle founded the association "BSW – For Reason and Justice e. V.". According to the news magazineDer Spiegel, the abbreviation in the club's name stands for "Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht" ("Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance"). The association is intended to serve as a precursor to a future party.[35][36]
In mid-October, over 50 members of Die Linke submitted an application for Wagenknecht's exclusion from the party. The initiators said they wanted to prevent Sahra Wagenknecht from building a new party with the resources of Die Linke. "This is no longer acceptable," saidSofia Leonidakis [de], leader of Die Linke in theBremen parliament.[37][38] The ongoing speculation about the founding of a new party and the resulting breakup of Die Linke also put a strain on the election campaigns in Bavaria and Hesse. Die Linke failed to enter both state parliaments.[39]
In January 2024, her new party was officially launched.[40]
Wagenknecht was her party's candidate for chancellor in the2025 federal election, running as the first candidate on the state list of theNorth Rhine-Westphalian BSW.[41] Unlike the top candidates of all other parties represented in the Bundestag, however, she did not stand as a candidate in any constituency.[42] Since the BSW will not be represented in the Bundestag, receiving 4.97% in the preliminary results and 4.98% in the final results, Sahra Wagenknecht will not remain a member of the Bundestag.[43]
In the 1990s, according to her companionGregor Gysi, Wagenknecht supported communist theses such as those ofWalter Ulbricht, before she "discovered"Ludwig Erhard's positions for herself, according to Gysi.[44] Wagenknecht herself described her idea of a new economic policy in her 2013 bookFreedom instead of Capitalism as "creative socialism". By this she meant a "market economy without capitalism" and a "socialism without a planned economy" and distanced herself fromcommunism.[45][46] In fact, Wagenknecht referred to the pioneers ofordoliberalism, whose ideas are otherwise more commonly represented in theFree Democratic Party (FDP). In 2013, during the financial and theEuropean debt crisis, Wagenknecht proposed a debt cut and certain subsequent measures to end the euro crisis, while at the same time generating economic growth and regulating the financial markets. Business journalistChristian Rickens called this "arch-liberal at its core".[47] In 2013,Der Spiegel editor Hauke Janssen saw clear differences between the arguments of Wagenknecht and the ordoliberal theory, for example on the topics of wage increases and unemployment; in his view, Wagenknecht "wrongly" appropriated Ludwig Erhard.[48]
Ahead of the launch of BSW in October 2023,Tagesschau noted that Wagenknecht's positions at that time emphasised "economic reason" and placed economic fundamentals before social welfare, comparing her stance to that of the conservativeCDU and FDP. In an interview, she described her goals as combating inflation, encouraging small and medium enterprise and domestic technology development, and establishing stable trade with a wide range of partners. She previously rejected accusations that she sought to establish control bodies for various industries and cited as inspiration the ideas of economistMariana Mazzucato, who was also considered a source forRobert Habeck (economics minister in theScholz cabinet, December 2021 – May 2025) whom Wagenknecht frequently criticised.[49]
In 2013, Wagenknecht rejected a return to the socialism ofEast Germany. In her view, public services such as housing, education, health, water and energy supplies, banks and key industries should be provided by the public sector in order to overcome "the dictates of returns and share prices".[50] In 2013, Wagenknecht also saw possibilities for a different economic order beyond capitalism.[51]
On 14 February2014, the German business and economics newspaperHandelsblatt put her on the cover of its weekend edition, wondering: "Are the Left better at understanding economics?" (Sind die Linken die besseren Wirtschaftsversteher?) The ambiguous headline made it unclear whether the question referred to left-wingers in general or to Wagenknecht's party, The Left, in particular. The newspaper had earlier interviewed her about her ideas about liberalism and socialism.[52]
For a long time, until 2010, Wagenknecht belonged to the Anti-Capitalist Left and theCommunist Platform within the Left Party, where she was also a member of the Federal Coordination Council.[53] In 2000, Wagenknecht called for an overcoming of capitalist production relations.[54] Wagenknecht showed understanding for the economic policies of the states ofCuba andVenezuela. In a 2006 press release, she stated that "the continued existence of the Cuban system represents a glimmer of hope for those in the so-calledThird World who are the losers in a market- and profit-oriented globalized world."[55] In 2008, she also defended the decision by Venezuelan PresidentHugo Chávez to nationalize the oil production facilities of the US companyExxonMobil.[56] In 2007 Wagenknecht argued that the Left Party must pursue radical andanti-capitalist goals, thereby remaining distinct from the more moderateSocial Democratic Party (SPD) andGreen Party. She criticized the Left Party's participation in coalition governments, especially the Berlin state government (Senat Wowereit III), which made cuts to social spending andprivatized some services.[57]
In a2024 interview, Wagenknecht claimed that she and the BSW were the “legitimate heirs of both ‘domesticated capitalism’ of post-war conservatism and the social-democratic progressivism, domestic as well as foreign, of the era ofBrandt,Kreisky andPalme,” and also stated that while she found Marx’s views on capitalist crises and property relations very useful. She said not to believe incentral planning or total nationalizations and seeing "third options" instead.[58]
In 2017, Wagenknecht called for the dissolution ofNATO and for a new security agreement that links Germany andRussia.[59][60] Throughout her career, Wagenknecht has argued in favor of a closer relationship with Russia. In 1992, she had published an essay praisingStalin-era Russia, a view she said in 2017 she no longer espoused.[60]
Wagenknecht has expressed strong support for the rise of left-wing leaders inLatin America, such asHugo Chávez,[61] and forSYRIZA's2015 electoral victory inGreece.[62] She serves as a spokesperson for the Venezuela Avanza solidarity network, and was an alternate on the European Parliament's delegation for relations withMercosur.[21]
In 2010, she refused to join a standing ovation when former IsraeliPrime Minister andNobel LaureateShimon Peres gave a speech in theBundestag onHolocaust Remembrance Day.[63][64][65][66][67]
BeforeRussia's invasion of Ukraine, Wagenknecht was a prominent defender of Russia and its PresidentVladimir Putin, arguing that while theUnited States were trying to "conjure up" an invasion of Ukraine, "Russia has in fact no interest in marching into Ukraine".[68][69][70] After Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Wagenknecht said that her judgment had been wrong.[71][72] Wagenknecht opposedsanctions against Russia over the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and, in a speech in September 2022, accused the German government of "launching an unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier". Before the war, over half of Germany's gas was supplied by Russia. In May, The Left had voted in favor of economic sanctions against Russia. Her speech was applauded by The Left party leadership and by the far-rightAlternative for Germany. Her speech prompted the resignation of two high-profile party members.[73]
On 10 February 2023, Wagenknecht andAlice Schwarzer started collecting signatures for theirManifest für Frieden (lit. 'Manifesto for peace') on Change.org. It called for negotiations with Russia and a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine. By the end of the month it had received 700,000 signatures. Arally for peace with Wagenknecht and Schwarzer on 25 February was also attended by far-right groups,[74] and was said to have appealed to theQuerfront.[75]
On the death of Russian opposition politicianAlexei Navalny in February 2024, Wagenknecht commented: "The early death of Alexei Navalny is shocking. Even if it is still unclear exactly what Putin's critic died of. One thing is certain: Navalny was a victim of the autocratic system in today's Russia."[76]
In the spring of 2024, in two interviews, she linked the peace negotiations she had called for between Ukraine and Russia with the proposal that the population in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories should vote on their nationality in a referendum supervised by theUnited Nations. She also outlined what a peace agreement could look like, and did not rule out security guarantees or a military obligation to provide Ukraine with military assistance if Russia were to break a peace agreement. She could imagine China, Turkey or France as guarantor powers. She also called forGerhard Schröder's "line to the Russian president" to be used for negotiations.[77][78] In June 2024 she defended the absence of the BSW MPs from a speech by Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy in the Bundestag, she described the war in Ukraine as a "proxy war" between NATO and Russia.[79]
In December 2024, Wagenknecht declared that she "condemns this war." She "considers politicians who start wars - and that also applies to Vladimir Putin - to be criminals."[80]
Amidst theGaza war, Wagenknecht described theGaza Strip as an "open-air prison".[81] In an August 2024 interview she stated "I will always defend Israel's right to exist. [Israel does have the right to defend itself against] Hamas and its terrible attack in October. But the campaign of destruction in the Gaza Strip has long ceased to be self-defence." She also stated that a ceasefire is needed.[82]
In response to the2015 Cologne sexual attacks, Wagenknecht stated "Whoever abuses hisright to hospitality has forfeited his right to hospitality". This statement was almost unanimously criticized in her party and parliamentary group colleagues, but did receive praise from some in the AfD.[83]
On 28 May 2016, an activist from theanti-fascist groupTorten für Menschenfeinde ("Cakes for Enemies of Humanity")pushed a chocolate cake into Wagenknecht's face at a Left Party meeting in Magdeburg in response to Wagenknecht's calls for limits on the number of refugees. Wagenknecht has criticizedAngela Merkel'srefugee policies, arguing that her government has not provided the levels of financial and infrastructural support required to avoid increasing pressure on local authorities and the labor market, thereby exacerbating tensions in society.[24] She has also said that Merkel's policies were partly to blame for the2016 Berlin truck attack.[84]
Partly in response to these experiences, in 2021, she published the bookDie Selbstgerechten ("The Self-Righteous") in which she criticizesleft-liberals ("Linksliberale") for being neither left nor liberal but rather supporting the ruling classes, and, to some extent, their own interests. The book features, among several other topics, a discussion on immigration's alleged negative impacts on the domestic working class. It reached number one in the German non-fiction bestseller list as published byDer Spiegel.[85]
At the beginning of June 2015, Wagenknecht, together with 150 other celebrities from culture and politics, signed an open letter to the Chancellor calling for same-sex civil partnerships to be given equal treatment to opposite-sex marriage.[86] In 2017, Wagenknecht advocated for legalization ofsame-sex marriage.[87]
In 2024, Wagenknecht voted against a bill that would make it easier to change one's gender. When referencing said bill, Wagenknecht stated "your law turns parents and children into guinea pigs for an ideology that only benefits the pharmaceutical lobby".[7]
Regarding theCOVID-19 pandemic, Wagenknecht has opined that only the elderly and vulnerable groups need to be vaccinated against the disease, and agitated against theGerman government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wagenknecht has opposed proposals forCOVID-19 vaccine mandates, arguing they should be a personal choice.[88]
Wagenknecht's positions have been compared to those of the far-rightAlternative for Germany. In November 2021, Left Party colleagues such asMaximilian Becker,Martina Renner, andNiema Movassat suggested that Wagenknecht leave the party.[89][90]
Wagenknecht married businessman Ralph-Thomas Niemeyer in May 1997.[91] On 12 November 2011, politicianOskar Lafontaine stated publicly that he and Wagenknecht had become "close friends".[92] At the time, Wagenknecht and Lafontaine had already separated from their respective spouses.[93][94] Wagenknecht married Lafontaine, 26 years her senior, on 22 December 2014.[95] She is an atheist.[96]
In 2023, the media estimated Wagenknecht's assets at€3 million.[97] In addition to her parliamentary remuneration, Wagenknecht earned around€750,000 in book and speaking fees in 2023.[2] She was one of the highest earning German politicians in theBundestag in her last tenure.[2][98]
She was born in 1969 in East Germany to an Iranian father who had come to West Berlin to study and a German mother who worked as an art dealer and lived on the other side of the Berlin Wall, making it impossible for the couple to maintain regular contact.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Sahra Wagenknecht, of the hard left Die Linke party, said vaccinations against coronavirus "must remain a personal decision".
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