Carola Reimann (born 25 August 1967) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) who served as State Minister for Social Affairs, Health, and Equality in the cabinet of Minister-President Stephan Weil of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

from 2017 to 2021. She previously represented

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

in 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 ...

from

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

until 2017.

Early life and education

Reimann has a doctorate in

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

from

Technical University of Braunschweig TU Braunschweig (, unofficially ''University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology'') is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a membe ...

Political career

Career in national politics

In parliament, Reimann was a member of the Committee on Health (2000–2013) and the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (2000–2002). She served as her parliamentary group's spokesperson on health policy from 2005 until 2009. From 2008 until 2017, Reimann was part of the leadership team of the SPD in Lower Saxony, under successive chairs Garrelt Duin (2007–2010), Olaf Lies (2010–2012) and Stephan Weil (2012–2017). Ahead of the 2009 elections, German foreign minister

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who has served as President of Germany since 2017. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again f ...

included her in his shadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats' campaign to unseat

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

. Following the 2009 elections, Reimann chaired the Committee on Health from 2009 to 2013. In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' of

's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Reimann was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on health policy, led by Jens Spahn and Karl Lauterbach. From 2013, she served as deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of chair Thomas Oppermann. During her time in office, she notably led a cross-party initiative in 2015 for legislation on

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

meant to absolve doctors from prosecution, alongside

Peter Hintze Peter Hintze (25 April 1950 – 26 November 2016) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 until his death in 2016. From 2013 until 2016, Hintze was one of the six ...

and Lauterbach.

Career in state politics

In November 2017, Reimann resigned from parliament to accept her appointment as State Minister for Social Affairs, Health, and Equality in the cabinet of Minister-President Stephan Weil of

. In this capacity, she was also one of the state's representatives on the Bundesrat. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Reimann was again part of the working group on health policy, this time led by

Hermann Gröhe Gottfried Hermann Gröhe (born 25 February 1961) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister of Health in the third cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. Early life an ...

, Georg Nüßlein and

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 ...

. In March 2021, Reimann resigned from her office, citing health reasons.

Later career

Since 2021, Reimann has been working as chair of German health insurance AOK.

Other activities

* Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2016)Dr. Carola Reimann wird neues Mitglied im Kuratorium des Fraunhofer IST
Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST), press release of May 11, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimann, Carola Living people 1967 births 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Politicians from Braunschweig