Ute Vogt (born 3 October 1964) is a German lawyer 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 from 1994 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2021. Since 2021, she has been serving as president of the

German Life Saving Association The German Life Saving Association ( or DLRG) is a relief organization for life saving in Germany. The DLRG is the largest voluntary lifesaving organization in the world. With around 560,000 members, organised in approximately 2,100 local g ...

(DLRG).

Early life and education

Vogt was born in 1964 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. She studied at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

and at the German University of Administrative Sciences, Speyer, and became a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

Political career

Vogt joined the

(SPD) in 1984 and became a city councillor in

Wiesloch Wiesloch (, locally ; South Franconian: ''Wissloch'') is a town in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 13 kilometres south of Heidelberg. After Weinheim, Sinsheim and Leimen, it is the fourth largest town in the Rhein-Neckar-K ...

from 1989 until 1994. Vogt was first elected to the in 1994, representing

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the ...

. In parliament, she was a member of the Committee on Internal Affairs (1994-2001) and the Committee on Postal Services and Telecommunications (1998-2001). From 1999 until 2001, she also served on the parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the Highest Courts of Justice, namely the

Federal Court of Justice The Federal Court of Justice ( , ) is the highest court of Private law, civil and Criminal law, criminal jurisdiction in Germany. Its primary responsibility is the final appellate review of decisions by lower courts for errors of law. While, le ...

(BGH), the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the

Federal Fiscal Court The Federal Fiscal Court ( ; abbreviated ) is one of five federal supreme courts of Germany, established according to Article 95 of the Basic Law. It is the federal court of appeal for tax and customs matters in cases which have already been he ...

(BFH), the

Federal Labour Court The Federal Labour Court ( , BAG ) is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law (mostly concerning contracts of employment) and collective labour law (e.g. cases concerning strikes and colle ...

(BAG), and the

Federal Social Court The Federal Social Court (, ) is the German federal court of appeals for social security cases, mainly cases concerning the public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident insurance schemes. Tri ...

(BSG). In 2000, she became the first woman to chair the Committee on Internal Affairs. On the state level, Vogt was elected chairwoman of the SPD in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

in 1999, leading the party’s campaign for the 2001 state elections and – unsuccessfully – attempting to unseat incumbent Minister-President

Erwin Teufel Erwin Teufel (born 4 September 1939, in Zimmern ob Rottweil) is a German politician of the CDU. Political career Teufel was the leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg from 1978 to 1991. Teufel was Minis ...

. From 2001 until 2005 elections, Vogt served alongside Fritz Rudolf Körper as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior under minister

Otto Schily Otto Georg Schily (born 20 July 1932) is a former Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany, his tenure was from 1998 to 2005, in the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and wa ...

in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

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 ...

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German former politician and Lobbying, lobbyist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (S ...

. Also on the national level, Vogt was one of the deputy chairs of the SPD from 2003 until 2007, under the leadership of successive chairmen Schröder (2003-2004),

Franz Müntefering Franz Müntefering (; born 16 January 1940) is a German politician. He was Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 2004 to 2005 and again from 18 October 2008 to 13 November 2009. He served as the minister of Labour and Social Affairs, ...

(2004-2005),

Matthias Platzeck Matthias Platzeck (born 29 December 1953) is a German politician. He was Minister-President, Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD from November 2005 to April 2006. ...

(2005-2006) and

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 ...

(2006-2007). When the Schröder government was voted out of office in 2005, Vogt returned to state politics and became her party’s candidate to challenge Minister-President

Günther Oettinger Günther Hermann Oettinger (born 15 October 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019, as European Commissioner for Digi ...

in Baden-Württemberg’s

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 ...

. From 2006 until 2008, she chaired her parliamentary group in the

Landtag of Baden-Württemberg The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet (assembly), diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 Baden-Württemberg ...

. She resigned as the party’s chairwoman in the state after disappointing results in the

2009 German federal election The 2009 German federal election was held in Germany on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag. The Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Uni ...

and was replaced by Nils Schmid. Vogt returned to the in the 2009 elections, this time representing

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. In parliament, she joined the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as well as a parliamentary inquiry into the Gorleben salt dome, a controversial proposed

deep geological repository A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment, typically 200–1,000 m below the surface of the earth. It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals ...

for

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

. In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Vogt led the SPD delegation in the working group on the environment and agriculture; her co-chair from the Christian Democrats was

Katherina Reiche Katherina Reiche (born 16 July 1973) is a German manager and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Federal Minister fo ...

. She subsequently served as deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group under the leadership of chairman

Thomas Oppermann Thomas Ludwig Albert Oppermann (27 April 195425 October 2020) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). From October 2017 until his death he served as Vice President of the Bundestag. In his earlier career, he serv ...

from 2013 until 2017. In this capacity, she was one of the members of the country's temporary National Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste from 2014 to 2016, chaired by Ursula Heinen-Esser and Michael Müller.. From 2015 until 2016, she was part of a government-appointed commission tasked with recommending how to safeguard the funding of fulfilling Germany's exit from nuclear energy, under the leadership of co-chairs

Ole von Beust Ole von Beust (born 13 April 1955) is a former German politician who was First Mayor of Hamburg from 31 October 2001 to 25 August 2010, serving as President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2007 on for one year. He was succeeded as mayor by ...

and

Jürgen Trittin Jürgen Trittin (born 25 July 1954) is a German Green politician who served as Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Early life and education ...

. Vogt later served as a member of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development (2018–2019) and again of the Committee on Internal Affairs (2019–2021). In October 2020, she announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Other activities

* German Foundation for Active Citizenship and Volunteering (DSEE), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2022) * Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018) * German Committee for

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

, Member of the Board (since 2018) *

German Foundation for World Population DSW () is an international private non-profit foundation addressing Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) and population dynamics. DSW funds its project and advocacy work from private donations and the financial support of governments, foundations ...

(DSW), Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board (–2021)Advisory Board

(DSW). *

(DLRG), Member *

Eurosolar Eurosolar - European Association for Renewable Energies (Own spelling: EUROSOLAR) is a German association with headquarters in Bonn. The association has sections in 13 countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, ...

, Member * German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member

References

External links