Michelle Müntefering | |
|---|---|
 Michelle Müntefering (2019) | |
| Minister of State for International Cultural Policy | |
| In office 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Katja Keul |
| Member of theBundestag forHerne – Bochum II | |
| In office 22 October 2013 – 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Gerd Bollmann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michelle-Jasmin Gabriele Schumann (1980-04-09)9 April 1980 (age 45) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Nationality |  Germany |
| Political party | SPD |
Michelle-Jasmin Gabriele Müntefering (néeSchumann; born 9 April 1980) is a German journalist and politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the GermanBundestag since the2013, representing theHerne – Bochum II district.
Müntefering was a member of the party executive board in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2004 to 2014. In addition to her parliamentary mandate, she served as Minister of State (Parliamentary State Secretary) at theFederal Foreign Office under ministerHeiko Maas in thefourth government ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2018 until 2021.[1]
Müntefering was born inHerne. During her schooldays at the Hibernia School, she completed a vocational training from 1997 to 1998 as a nanny, which belonged to the concept of the school. After her graduation in 2000, she did an internship in a local editorial office and then joined a news and press agency.
From 2002 to 2007 Müntefering studied journalism with a focus on economics, graduated with a bachelor's degree and initially worked freelance in the media. In 2008 and 2009 she was a research associate toFranz Müntefering at the German Bundestag. From 2008 to 2010 she did a traineeship atVorwärts inBerlin. From 2010 Müntefering worked as a freelance journalist.[1]
Müntefering has been a member of the GermanBundestag since the2013 federal elections. In her first term, she was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as well as on its Sub-Committee on Cultural Relations and Education Policy. On the Committee on Foreign Affairs, she served as her parliamentary group’srapporteur on relations toTurkey. From 2014 until 2015, she briefly served as rapporteur for digital consumer protection.
In addition to her committee assignments, Müntefering served as chairwoman of the German-Turkish Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2014 until 2018. She is also a member of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-Iranian Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In the negotiations to form acoalition government under the leadership ofChancellorAngela Merkel following the2017 federal elections, Müntefering was part of the working group on foreign policy, led byUrsula von der Leyen,Gerd Müller andSigmar Gabriel. Between February and March 2018, she briefly served as member of the SPD parliamentary group’s leadership under chairwomanAndrea Nahles.[2]
After leaving government, Müntefering joined the Committee on Foreign Affairs and became the chairwoman of its Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy. In 2023, she was one of the initiators – alongsideAgnieszka Brugger andMarie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann – of a cross-party group promoting afeminist foreign policy.[3]
In April 2023, Müntefering announced her intention to resign from the German Parliament and instead run in the2024 European elections;[4] however, she failed to get her party's nomination. In June 2024, she announced that she would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[5]
In 2017, when media reports revealed Turkey’s intelligence agencyMIT had illegally been spying on Germans suspected of ties toFethullah Gulen, Müntefering was found to be one of the subjects of surveillance.[17][18] In the weeks leading up to the2017 federal elections, Müntefering’s car was set on fire with aMolotov cocktail.
In December 2009, she married the then Bundestag member, former SPD chairman and former vice-chancellorFranz Müntefering.[19] The ceremony took place at theZollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex.[20] The couple lives inHerne andBerlin’sKreuzberg district.[21]
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| People | |
