Claudia Winterstein (née Beyer; born 18 March 1950) is a German politician. She served as

Member of the Bundestag Member of the German Parliament (german: Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) is the official name given to a deputy in the German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reich ...

for the

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) from

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

, and was her party's Parliamentary Secretary between

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. She served multiple terms on the Hannover city council, and also worked as a certified economy correspondent, a lecturer, a research assistant, and a property management executive.

Life

Claudia Beyer was born in Berlin. She achieved the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen yea ...

at the humanistic in

Berlin-Steglitz Steglitz () is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in Southwestern Berlin, the capital of Germany. is a Slavic name for the European goldfinch, similar to the German . Steglitz was also a borough from 1920 to 2000. It contained the l ...

. She trained to be a certified economy correspondent (''Wirtschaftskorrespondentin'') for English and Spanish. Beyer intended to become an architect, but found the field in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under m ...

to be saturated with architects and short on available property lots, due to the Berlin Wall. She instead studied

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

at the (PH), graduating with the

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belaru ...

. She worked from 1972 as correspondent for the foreign department of a

wholesaler Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

, moving the following year to a position as research assistant of the (German society for the United Nations). She then became its CEO for the Berlin region from 1976 to 1979. She also lectured from 1977 to 1979 at the PH Berlin at the chair of . From 1980, Winterstein worked in her husband's architecture firm in Hannover, as the executive of the property management department. She earned a doctorate from the

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

in 1984, with a dissertation entitled "Migrantenintegration qua Bildungsplanung", about planning an education system to integrate Turkish children in West Berlin, in theory and practice. Winterstein joined the

(FDP) in 1980. From 1996 to 2003, she was deputy president of the party's women's organisation in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. She was a member of the state board (''Landesvorstand'') there from 1994, and became president of the party district Hannover-Stadt in 1996, and also of the

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the ...

region in 2006. She was a member of the Hannover city council from 1991 to 1996, and again from 2001 to 2002, serving as deputy president of her party from 1995 to 1996, and as president from 2001 to 2002. Winterstein was a member of the federal parliament,

Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages Member of the German Parliament (german: Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) is the official name given to a deputy in the German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichs ...

, from 2002 to 2013, where she served as party speaker for film politics, and as president of the workgroup for budget. She also was a member of the budget committee and ''Obfrau'' in the committee for ''Rechnungsprüfung''. She was a deputy member on the committee of culture and media. On 26 October 2009, Winterstein was elected as her party's . Winterstein did not pursue a candidacy for the following election. She has worked in a freelance capacity in the field of politics advisory, for companies such as

CargoBeamer Cargobeamer is an intermodal transport system. It involves specially designed pallets which can be carried on a road trailer; the pallets are fitted on top of flatcars but can slide sideways to allow trucks to drive on and off smoothly at inter ...

from 2014 and Global Bridges from 2018.

Private life

Winterstein married in 1979; the couple has a son, born in 1985. She and her husband are separated.

References

External links

*
Claudia Winterstein
(in German) abgeordnetenwatch.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Winterstein, Claudia 1950 births Living people 21st-century German politicians 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany)