Dagmar Freitag (born 3 March 1953) is a German teacher and 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 a 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 ...

from the state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

from 1994 to 2021.

Early life and career

After graduating from the Gymnasium Hohenlimburg in 1972, Freitag studied English language and literature and sports science at

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began ...

, which she completed in 1977 with the first state examination for teaching at secondary schools. She passed the second state examination in 1980 and worked as a teacher at the Wilhelm-Busch-Realschule in

Schwerte Schwerte (; Westphalian: ''Schweierte'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Schwerte is situated in the Ruhr valley, at the south-east border of the Ruhr Area. South of Schwerte begins the mountain ...

. In 1992 she changed to the municipal comprehensive school in Schwerte.

Political career

Freitag first became a member of the Bundestag in the

1994 German federal election The 1994 German federal election was held in Germany on 16 October 1994 to elect the members of the 13th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor in a narrowly ...

. Throughout her time in parliament, she was a member of the Sports Committee, which she has chaired from 2014. In 2009, she also joined the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Within her parliamentary group, Freitag served as part of the leadership team around chairman Peter Struck from 2005 until 2009. From 2014 until 2018, she also chaired an internal working group on relations with North America. From 2014, she was her group's deputy spokesperson on foreign policy. In addition to her committee assignments, Freitag was a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group – which she chaired from 2016 until 2018 – and of the German delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly The NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It consists of delegates from the parliaments of the 32 NATO member countries as well as from associate ...

(since 2014). Ahead of the

2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendum ...

, 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 Freitag 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 ...

. In October 2020, Freitag announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead retire from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

* ''

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

'', Member of the Broadcasting Council (since 2014) * National Anti Doping Agency Germany (NADA), Member of the Supervisory BoardSupervisory Board
National Anti Doping Agency Germany (NADA). *

German Sport University Cologne The German Sport University Cologne (Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, DSHS) is a public university located in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Founded in 1947, it is the only higher education institution in Germany focused exclusively on ...

(DSHS), Member of the University Council (-2017) *

German Athletics Association The German Athletics Association ( German: ''Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband''; DLV) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Germany. Since 2010, Germany's kits are supplied by Nike. See also * German Athletics Championships * Ea ...

(DLV), Vice-President (-2017) * German Animal Welfare Federation, Member

References

External links