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Erika Steinbach | |
|---|---|
 Steinbach in 2014 | |
| Member of Parliament forFrankfurt am Main II | |
| In office 20 December 1990 – 24 October 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Rita Streb-Hesse |
| Succeeded by | Bettina Wiesmann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Erika Hermann (1943-07-25)25 July 1943 (age 82) |
| Political party | CDU (1974–2017) AfD (since 2022) |
| Committees | Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (2005–2017) |
| Website | www.erika-steinbach.de |
Erika Steinbach (pronunciationⓘ, born 25 July 1943)[1] is a German right-wingpolitician. She previously served as a member of theBundestag from 1990 until 2017.[2]
She was a member of theChristian Democratic Union from 1974 to 2017, and served as a member of the CDU national board 2000–2010, as a member of the leadership of theCDU/CSU parliamentary group and as the CDU/CSU's spokeswoman onhuman rights andhumanitarian aid 2005–2017.[3] Steinbach belonged to the socially conservative wing of the CDU and opposesabortion andsame-sex marriage. During theEuropean migrant crisis, Steinbach was critical of Chancellor Merkel's policies: in January 2017 she left the CDU over the migrant issue, from then on sitting as an independent member of the Bundestag. She did not stand in theSeptember 2017 federal election, therefore leaving the Bundestag. Instead, Steinbach has publicly endorsed theAlternative für Deutschland (AfD), though she did not become a member of the right-wing populist party.[4] In 2018 Steinbach became President of theDesiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung, a political foundation affiliated with the AfD.[5] A long-time member of the German-Israeli Association, Steinbach is also known for pro-Israeli views, and has often criticized theGerman Foreign Office for voting in favour of anti-Israeli resolutions at the UN.[6]
In addition to her parliamentary activity, Steinbach was president of theFederation of Expellees from 1998 to 2014. Erika Steinbach studied music and was a member of concert orchestras before becoming a politician.
Steinbach's father, Wilhelm Karl Hermann, was born inHanau (Hesse, western-centralGermany), but his family had their origins inLower Silesia.[7] In 1941 he was stationed inRumia (German:Rahmel), a village in theSecond Polish Republic, which was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939 as part of the newly created province ofReichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.[8] Wilhelm Karl Hermann served there as an airfield technician as aLuftwaffe Sergeant. Steinbach's mother, Erika Hermann (née Grote), was ordered to work in the town after the annexation as aLuftwaffenhelfer.[8] Steinbach was born there asErika Hermann.[9]
In January 1944, her father was deployed to theEastern Front. In January 1945 duringEast Prussian Offensive of theSoviet Army, Steinbach's mother together with her children, fled toSchleswig-Holstein in northwestern Germany.[8][10][11] In 1948 the family moved toBerlin, where Steinbach's grandfather had become mayor of one of the districts.[citation needed]
In 1949, Wilhelm Karl Hermann returned from Soviet captivity. In 1950, the family moved to Hanau, Hesse where Steinbach finished her education and started studying the violin.[8][11] In 1967 she had to abandon her music career due to a damaged finger.[8][11] In 1972, she married Helmut Steinbach, the conductor of a local youth symphonic orchestra. Steinbach graduated from a school of civil administration and moved toFrankfurt, where she started working for a Communal Evaluation Office.[8][11]
In 1974 she joined the Frankfurt branch of the CDU.[8] In 1977 she was elected a member of theFrankfurt City Council and held that post until 1990.[12]
She was elected a member of theBundestag in 1990, for the constituency ofFrankfurt am Main III[11] representing that until 1998. Since 2005, she has represented the constituency ofFrankfurt am Main II. In 1990 she voted against theGerman–Polish Border Treaty (1990).[8] In 1997 she criticized the approval of the Czech-German Declaration of Reconciliation.[8]
Since 2005, she has been a member of the German parliamentaryCommittee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid and spokesperson forhuman rights and humanitarian aid of the CDU/Christian Social Union fraction.[citation needed] She is also a deputy member of the parliamentary Committee for the Interior.[citation needed] Since 2000, she has been a member of thenational board of the CDU (German,CDU-Bundesvorstand).[citation needed]
In 2009, she was offered the position of Secretary of State in theFederal Ministry of Education and Research, but declined.[13]
Steinbach joined theGerman Federation of Expellees in 1994. In May 1998 she was elected President of the organization, and was re-elected in 2000, 2002,[8] 2004,[14] 2006, 2008 and 2010.[15] The Federation of Expellees claims to have 1.3 million members.[16] This figure was disputed in January 2010 by the German news serviceDDP, which reported an actual membership of 550,000.[17]
The German Federal Expellee Law of 1953 defines as expellee allGerman nationals andethnic Germans with a primary residence outsidepost-war Germany, who lost this residence in the course of theWorld War II-related flight and expulsions.[18]
Steinbach has distanced herself from thePrussian Trust, that aggressively seeks restitution of German properties in Poland.[19]
Steinbach represents the Federation of Expellees on the board of the national broadcasting companyZDF.[20]
Erika Steinbach is the founder, along withPeter Glotz, of the foundationCentre Against Expulsions (German:Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen), which is working to establish a museum for the victims of "Flight, displacements, forced resettlements and deportations all over the world in the past century",[21] a project of the German federal government on initiative and with participation of the Federation of Expellees. The museum will contain a permanent exhibition to document expulsions including theexpulsion of Germans after World War II.
The federal government established the federal foundation "Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung" which is intended to be the basis of a future museum. The Federation of Expellees is entitled to appoint some of the board member, although they need to be confirmed by the cabinet.[citation needed]
On 4 March 2009 the Federation of Expellees decided not to nominate Steinbach to the council and instead left one seat unoccupied, after theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) threatened to veto Steinbach's appointment to the board.[22] On 19 October 2009, after the SPD was ousted from government and replaced by a liberal-conservative coalition dominated by Steinbach's party, Steinbach announced her intention to take the seat at the board.[23] However, objections against her were subsequently also raised by the new foreign ministerGuido Westerwelle of the liberalFree Democratic Party.[24] However, Steinbach is supported by her own party and the CSU, both of which have called upon Westerwelle to give up his resistance, and have cited earlier statements by Westerwelle where he had praised Steinbach a few years ago.[25][26]
In 2006 she was involved in an exhibition on the expulsions in Europe in the 20th century.[27][28] The exhibition deals with expulsions of German, Armenians, Poles, Turks, Greeks, Latvians, Karelians, Ukrainians, Italians and other peoples – topics many Europeans are unfamiliar with.
As the CDU/CSU spokeswoman for human rights, Erika Steinbach is involved in a number of activities promoting human rights worldwide.[citation needed]
She was an expert speaker at the International Cuba Conference of theInternational Society for Human Rights in 2006.[29]
Together withPeter Glotz, she was the primary initiator of theFranz Werfel Human Rights Award, and serves as a jury member together withOtto von Habsburg,Klaus Hänsch andOtto Graf Lambsdorff among others. It has been awarded every second year since 2003 in the FrankfurtPaulskirche. The 2009 recipient wasHerta Müller.[citation needed]
Steinbach was a member of the CDU national board from 2000 to September 2010, when she chose to resign from the position following a controversy over comments about theGerman invasion of Poland. Steinbach, in support of other members of her expellee organization, said that the German attack on Poland was just a response to Poland's mobilization, resulting in criticism of her.[30] Steinbach's resignation was met with mixed feelings within the CDU/CSU. Some members were worried that her departure could cause a split, and a formation of a new right wing party in Germany.[30]
Steinbach left the CDU in January 2017, stating that Chancellor Angela Merkel's decisions during the European migrant crisis, which she called a violation of the German law, prompted her decision.[31] She did not run in the 2017 federal election.
After leaving the CDU, Steinbach became informally associated with the AfD. In 2018 Steinbach became President of theDesiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung, apolitical foundation affiliated with the AfD.[5][32] As President of the foundation, Steinbach has also advocated pro-Israeli views.[6]
Steinbach was member of theGoethe-Institut from 1994 to 2002.[33] She is also member of theVerein Deutsche Sprache.[34]
Erika Steinbach was considered conservative within the CDU in most fields of policy, belonging to the initiators of theBerliner Kreis in der Union [de].[citation needed] Her work as a member of parliament focuses on human rights, and she is a strong critic of human rights violations in communist countries around the world.[citation needed] She is also a strong supporter of the process of European integration.[citation needed]
Steinbach endorses theCharter of the German expellees of August 1950.[35]
Erika Steinbach holds conservative views on social policy and opposesabortion andsame-sex marriage, which sometimes has caused controversy.[19]
Since the onset of theEuropean migrant crisis, Steinbach has been one of the most vocal critics of Chancellor Merkel's refugee policies. This resulted in her leaving the CDU in January 2017; she said that allowing so many people into Germany for months without identifying them properly went "against our laws and against EU treaties" and that she could no longer support the CDU.[36]
Erika Steinbach is much more widely known inPoland and theCzech Republic than inGermany.[37] According to Cordell and Wolff (2005), the political importance theFederation of Expellees has in German politics is overestimated in Poland and the Czech Republic because of its disproportional media presence in those countries and campaigns of "aggressively nationalist politicians".[37]
Steinbach's public pronouncements have been criticized by late President of PolandLech Kaczyński for causing a deterioration inGerman-Polish relations.[38] Steinbach has a negative reputation in Poland. One example of this was a 2003 cover montage of Polish news magazineWprost that depicted her riding ChancellorGerhard Schröder while wearing anSS uniform.[39] In 2007Gazeta Wyborcza, a popular newspaper in Poland, reproduced a leaflet[40] presenting Steinbach in the succession of theTeutonic Knights and the Nazis, and repeated claims of the full compensations never paid[41][42] to Poland for losses caused by Nazi Germany.[43]
Polish ambassador to Germany,Marek Prawda, Poland's Foreign MinisterRadosław Sikorski and Polish Prime MinisterDonald Tusk expressed unease with Steinbach's appointment to the board of theCenter against Expulsions in February 2009.[44]Władysław Bartoszewski, anAuschwitz survivor who is Poland’s commissioner on relations with Germany, said that giving Mrs Steinbach a seat on the board would be akin to the Vatican appointing a Holocaust denier likeRichard Williamson to manage relations with Israel.[45] On 16 September 2010, Steinbach attested Bartoszewski "a bad character" on German TV.[46] At the time the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, privately warned Berlin that allowing Mrs Steinbach’s appointment would shake German-Polish relations “to their foundations”.[45] "Do people whose families lived there for generations want to be identified with a person like Mrs. Steinbach, who came to our country withHitler and had to leave it with Hitler too?" Sikorski said in Brussels on 23 February 2009, referring to Steinbach’s father having moved to German-occupied Poland during the war[47] and asked her to follow the example of President Horst Köhler, who was born within a family of wartime German settlers in Poland and never considered himself an expellee.[48] The fact that Steinbach represents a person born to a German officer stationed in occupied Poland has been described as one of the essential issues for Poles.[49]
Václav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic and anti-communist dissident, was said to refuse to speak to Steinbach due to the positions taken by theFederation of Expellees under her leadership.[30]
According to an editorial in theKölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the Polish criticism may be part of an "anti-German campaign" in which Steinbach has become the "enemy stereotype"[50] and "demonization of Steinbach is a kind of reason of state".[51] The way she is portrayed to the Polish public has been described by some German editorial writers as having "hysteric features"[52] or a "psychosis".[53] Some German media blame members ofLaw and Justice for having used her as a "hate figure" in internal politics to counterDonald Tusk[54] ignoring Steinbach's "real views".[51]
In May 2008 Steinbach started a series of lectures about the "German settlement in Eastern Central Europe" at theUniversity of Potsdam. However demonstrations by left-wing students who protested against Steinbach's allegedly revisionist views on German history by throwing water filled balloons and blocking the entrances compelled her to cancel the further lectures.[55][56] On 11 June 2008, a full meeting of the students council decided (with 146 against 7 votes) to protect the right of freedom of opinion and speech and invited Steinbach again, if necessary under police protection. The local Mayor, supported by several political parties, expressed his displeasure about the incident and requested that the university council invite Steinbach again.[57]
On 9 July 2009, she was awarded theBavarian Order of Merit by Prime Minister of BavariaHorst Seehofer for her work for the rights of the victims of the Expulsion.[58]
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