Katharina Binz (born ) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

who has been serving as Minister for Family, Women, Culture and Integration in the third Cabinet of Minister-President

Malu Dreyer Marie-Luise "Malu" Dreyer (born 6 February 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the 8th minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate from 2013 to 2024. She is the first woman to hold this office. She serv ...

since 2021. She has also been a part of the

German Bundesrat The German Bundesrat (, ) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen '' Länder'' (federated states) of Germany at the federal level (German: ''Bundesebene''). The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. Its se ...

for

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

since 2021. In December 2021 she succeeded

Anne Spiegel Anne Spiegel (born 15 December 1980) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. She served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 8 December 2021; she announ ...

, as Deputy Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Early life and education

Binz grew up in

Mesenich Mesenich is an – a municipality belonging to a , a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Cochem, whose seat is in the like-named town. Meseni ...

and Moritzheim (

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced mountain range, upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle (river), Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued ...

). She graduated from high school in 2003 and moved to

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, where she studied political science, history and philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University. In the 2005-2006 election period, she was chairperson of the

AStA The General Students' Committee () or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the (constituted) student body at universities in most German states. It is therefore considered the student government and student r ...

at Mainz University. She then moved from the level of local student politics to the national level and was a board member of the national student association "freier zusammenschluss von student*innenschaften". The AStA of the University of Mainz was able to win her back as a speaker for political education in 2009.

Political career

Since 2007, Binz has been a member of the district executive of

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

Mainz. She became active in local politics in the 2009 local elections in Rhineland-Palatinate, in which she won a seat on the Mainz city council. She was also elected as a successor for one of three seats for the Greens on the local council of the

Hartenberg-Münchfeld Hartenberg-Münchfeld is a borough of the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital Mainz, Germany. Hartenberg-Münchfeld is known for the Bruchwegstadion former home of first league football club of 1. FSV Mainz 05, the state broadcasting house of th ...

district, and took up the mandate on 8 August 2011. She left this body on 30 November 2013 due to a move to Mainz- Finthen. From 20 April 2013 to 20 May 2017, Binz was state chairwoman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Rhineland-Palatinate. On 1 April 2017, she succeeded Eveline Lemke in the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate and resigned as state chairwoman on 20 May 2017. Binz stood for the Greens in the Mainz I constituency for the

2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election The 2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was held on 14 March 2021 to elect the 18th Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. The outgoing government was a "traffic light coalition" of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democratic Party (FDP), ...

and won the first direct mandate for the Greens in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament here with 29.6 percent of the primary vote. On 18 May 2021, she was appointed Minister for Family, Women, Culture and Integration in the

Cabinet Dreyer III The Third Dreyer cabinet was the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate from 18 May 2021 until 10 July 2024. It was sworn in on 18 May after Malu Dreyer was elected as Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate by the members of the Landtag of R ...

. In the course of this, she resigned her state parliament mandate. Daniel Köbler succeeded her in the Landtag. Binz was nominated by her party as delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and devise the first system of federal government under the Articles of Conf ...

for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Other activities

* Cultural Foundation of the German States (KdL), Ex-Officio Member of the Council (since 2021)Board of Trustees
Cultural Foundation of the German States (KdL).

References

1983 births Living people Alliance 90/The Greens politicians People from Zell (Mosel) 21st-century German women politicians Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni {{Germany-Greens-politician-stub