Saskia Weishaupt (born 20 September 1993) is a German politician of

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

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 2021 to 2025.

Life and career

Weishaupt was born 1994 in the German city of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

and studied

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

. Weishaupt was elected to the Bundestag in 2021.

Controversy

In a tweet on 22 December 2021, Weishaupt called on the police to use

pepper spray Pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum spray, OC spray, capsaicin spray, mace, or capsicum spray is a Tear gas, lachrymator (tear gas) product containing as its active ingredient the chemical compound capsaicin, which irritates the eyes with burning ...

and batons against a "Querdenker" demonstration in Munich. The demonstration had been cancelled by the organisers. Nevertheless, up to 5,000 participants gathered. Eleven arrests were made. In response to Weishaupt's tweet, the hashtag #SchlagstockSaskia trended on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, with predominantly right-wing criticism from AfD member of parliament Jürgen Braun, among others. Police unionist Manuel Ostermann from Münsterland also criticised Green politician Weishaupt's tweet: "I dread to see you take responsibility. Arm yourself rhetorically. It's obviously about time." Weishaupt deleted her tweet and apologised, saying she "unfortunately had not been able to present the context in the tweet."

References

Living people People from Hanover 1993 births Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 {{Germany-Greens-politician-stub