Doris Maria Ahnen is a German

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

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 has been serving as Minister for Finance in the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

since 2014. Prior to that she served as the Minister for Education, Research and Culture since 2001. She has been a part of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate since the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidential e ...

. She is also a member of the

German Bundesrat The German Bundesrat (, ) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen '' Länder'' (federated states) of Germany at the federal level (German: ''Bundesebene''). The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. Its se ...

for Rhineland-Palatinate.

Political career

State Minister of Education, 2001–2014

From 2001 until 2014, Ahnen served as State Minister of Education in the government of Minister-President

Kurt Beck Kurt Beck (born 5 February 1949) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served as the 7th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000–01. In May 2 ...

. In this capacity, she chaired the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in 2004. Since 2004, Ahnen has been serving as deputy chair of the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate, under the leadership of chairpersons Kurt Beck (2004–2012) and Roger Lewentz (2012–present). Ahnen co-chaired the SPD's national conventions in Berlin, (2011, 2014, 2015, 2017),

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

(2013),

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

(2017) and

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

(2018).

State Minister of Finance, 2014–present

Since 2014, Ahnen has been serving as State Minister of Finance in the government of Minister-President

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 this capacity, she is one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, where she serves on the Finance Committee and the Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Regional Planning. During 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

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 2013 federal elections, Ahnen led the SPD delegation in the working group on education and research; her co-chair from the CDU/CSU was

Johanna Wanka Johanna Wanka (''née'' Müller; born 1 April 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as federal minister for education and research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. F ...

. In the negotiations to form Merkel's fourth coalition government following the 2017 federal elections, she was part of the working group on financial policies and taxes, led by

Peter Altmaier Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Ministry of Finance (Germany), Acting Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2018 and as Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and ...

Andreas Scheuer Andreas Franz Scheuer (born 26 September 1974) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party. From 2018 to 2021, he was Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the Cabinet Merkel IV. From 2013 to 2018, he ...

and

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...

. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

of the SPD, the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Ahnen led her party's delegation in the working group on financial regulation and the

national budget A government budget is a projection of the government's revenues and expenditure for a particular period, often referred to as a financial or fiscal year, which may or may not correspond with the calendar year. Government revenues mostly include ...

; her co-chairs from the other parties were

Lisa Paus Elisabeth "Lisa" Paus (born 19 September 1968) is a German politician who served as the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth from 2022 to 2025. A member of Alliance 90/The Greens and an economist by training, she ...

and

Christian Dürr Christian Dürr (born 18 April 1977) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2025. From December 2021, he was the leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Ea ...

. Ahnen was nominated by her party as delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and devise the first system of federal government under the Articles of Conf ...

for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Personal life

Ahnen was married to fellow SPD politician Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen from 1993 until 2018.

Other activities

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as t ...

(FES), Member of the Board (since 2018) *

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors * Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW), MemberDoris Ahnen

Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate The Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate is the state diet of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Article 79, Section 1 of the Rhineland-Palatinate constitution provides: "The Landtag is the supreme organ of political decision-making ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahnen, Doris 21st-century German women politicians 1964 births Living people Social Democratic Party in the GDR politicians Women ministers of state governments in Germany State ministers of Rhineland-Palatinate Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni