Brunhilde Irber née Klessinger (born 27 July 1948 in Pleinting,

Vilshofen an der Donau Vilshofen an der Donau is the largest city in the southeast of Bavaria, Germany in the district of Passau. Until 1972, the town was the district seat of the district of Vilshofen. History Middle Ages The year 776 was the beginning of the doc ...

) is a German politician ( SPD).

Life and career

After

Mittlere Reife The Mittlere Reife (, lit. ''"Middle Maturity"'') is a school-leaving certificate in Germany that is usually awarded after ten years of schooling. It is roughly comparable with the British GCSE. The official name varies between the federal st ...

in 1964, Brunhilde Irber initially began an apprenticeship as a child carer and housekeeper, but then moved to the

District Office A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

in 1965. Vilshofen, where she trained as an administrative assistant. She worked in this profession at the Vilshofen district office until 1968, at the Osterhofen district hospital from 1968 to 1970 and at the town of Osterhofen from 1970 to 1992. From 1982 to 1991, she was head of the culture and tourism office. In 1992, she began training as a foreign language correspondent, which she completed in 1994. Brunhilde Irber is married and has one son.

Party

She has been a member of the SPD since 1971 and was chairwoman of the SPD district association

Deggendorf Deggendorf (; ) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Deggendorf district. It is located on the left bank approximately in the middle between the Danube cities of Regensburg and Passau. The Danube forms the town's natural border towards ...

from 1990 to 1993. From 1993 until 2009 she was chairwoman of the SPD sub-district Deggendorf/

Freyung-Grafenau Freyung-Grafenau () is a Districts of Germany, ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the south and clockwise) the districts of Passau (district), Passau, Deggendorf (district), Deggendorf and Regen (district), Regen, ...

and since 2000 also of the SPD district

Niederbayern Lower Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven Regierungsbezirk, administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state. It consists of nine districts and 258 municipalities (including three cities). Geography Lower Bavaria is s ...

Member of Parliament

Brunhilde Irber was a member of the district council of the district of Deggendorf from 1978 to 2005 and of the town council of Osterhofen from 1990 to 2005. From 1994 to 2009 she was a

member of the German Bundestag Member of the German Parliament () is the official name given to a deputy in the Bundestag, German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichstag building in Berlin. In G ...

. She was a member of the Committee on Tourism and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From November 1998 to January 2005, Brunhilde Irber was spokesperson for the SPD Bundestag parliamentary group's working group on tourism. She is also the SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson on Africa policy. Since January 2005, she has been deputy chair of the Committee on Tourism. From December 2005 to mid-2007, she was a member of the executive committee of the SPD parliamentary group. On 29 June 2004, she was the addressee of a

letter bomb A letter bomb is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agenc ...

from Johann Lang. However, the explosive device was discovered before the letter was opened and did not detonate. Brunhilde Irber has always been elected via the

State List The State List or List-II is a list of 61 items. Initially there were 66 items in the list in Schedule Seven to the Constitution of India. The legislative section is divided into three lists: the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent Lis ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

to the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

. Her

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

was

Commitment to the free-flowing Danube

Brunhilde Irber is a founding member of the Parliamentary Group for Free-Flowing Rivers.

Public offices

From 1996 to 2002 she was second mayor in the town of Osterhofen.

Honours

* 2003 Municipal Medal of Merit in bronze * 2005

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit () is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people". The or ...

* 2017 Municipal Medal of Merit in silver * 2020 Honorary Citizenship of the town of Osterhofen * 2021

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

on ribbon

Literature

Rudolf Vierhaus Rudolf Vierhaus (29 October 1922 – 13 November 2011) was a German historian who mainly researched the Early modern period. He had been a professor at the newly founded Ruhr University Bochum since 1964. From 1971, he was director of the in Gött ...

, Ludolf Herbst (ed.), Bruno Jahn (co-ed.): ''Biographisches Handbuch der Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestages. 1949–2002.'' Vol. 1: ''A-M.'' K. G. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0.

External links

Website of Brunhilde Irber

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irber, Brunhilde 1948 births Living people Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians