Christine Ann Buchholz (born 2 April 1971 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

) is a German politician and was member of 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 ...

, the German federal diet from 2009 to 2021 for the

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

. A progressive activist, Bucholz is a member of Marx21, a network of

trotskyists Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as a ...

within Die Linke broadly aligned with the

International Socialist Tendency The International Socialist Tendency (IST) is an Political international, international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations espousing the ideas of Tony Cliff (1917–2000), founder of the Socialist Workers Party (UK), Socialist Wor ...

Education and early career

From 1991 to 1998, Buchholz studied education and social sciences with a focus on politics and religion at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

. After the state examination she took up a supplementary study of science history. Since 1995 she has also worked in Hamburg and Berlin as an assistant for people with disabilities. From 1997 to 2001 she was a member of the works council in a Hamburg nursing company. She was certified as ötv - Vertrauensfrau (trusted woman) and is a member of the union

ver.di (''Verdi'' (stylized as ''ver.di''; �vɛʁdiː; English: ''United Services Trade Union'') is a German trade union based in Berlin, Germany. It was established on 19 March 2001 as the result of a merger of five individual unions and is a m ...

. From 2002 she worked as a freelance editor and from 2005 to 2009 as a research assistant to a member of the left parliamentary group Linksfraktion.

Political career

Since the early 1990s she has been active in the antifascist scene. In 1994 she became a member of the Trotskyist organization Linksruck. From 1994 to 1999 she was a member of the SPD. She was active early in the

anti-globalization movement The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

and became a member of Attac. She was one of the organizers of the European Social Forum, the Social Forum in Germany and the protests against the

G8 summit The Group of Eight (G8) was an intergovernmental political forum from 1997 to 2014, formed by incorporating Russia into the G7. The G8 became the G7 again after Russia was expelled in 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea. The forum ...

Heiligendamm Heiligendamm () is a German seaside resort founded in 1793. It is the oldest seaside spa in continental Europe. Heiligendamm is part of the town Bad Doberan in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and historically belongs to Mecklenburg. The ...

(2007). She participated in the organization and implementation of the Blockupy protests against "banking power and the austerity of the EU troika". In the Bundestag she spoke against austerity, the

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

and the

European Fiscal Compact The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union; also referred to as TSCG, or more plainly the Fiscal Stability Treaty is an intergovernmental treaty introduced as a new stricter version of the Stability ...

. Buchholz proposed in early 2013 that politicians of the other two (former) opposition parties

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

and Greens should seek political compromises. With a view to the federal election in 2013 (and apparently on the subject of a red-red-green coalition), she said that there is no substantive basis for a government participation because of the support of foreign operations of the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

and the approval of

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 ...

's EU austerity. Through her membership in Linksruck (dissolved in 2007) she joined the WASG, whose extended federal board she belonged from spring 2005. In March 2007, she was elected to the executive WASG board. Since the Unification Party Convention on 16 June 2007 she is a member of the executive party executive committee of the left, where she is responsible for peace and disarmament. Buchholz is (as of 2008) a supporter of the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

organization Marx21 within Die Linke and was the author of the magazine of the same name. Buchholz is considered a protagonist of the left party wing within the party Die Linke. In 2011, she criticized the attempt by reformers such as Stefan Liebich to change the foreign policy foundations of the party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchholz, Christine 1971 births Living people Politicians from Hamburg Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative politicians Members of the Bundestag for Hesse German Trotskyists Female members of the Bundestag Linksruck 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for Die Linke University of Hamburg alumni