Elfriede Karl (born 14 September 1933 in Salzburg) is a retired Austrian politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. She was primarily engaged in family and women's affairs. [1] Karl was a member of the National Council between 1974 and 1990. [2]
Before entering politics, Karl had completed an apprenticeship as a clerk in the 1950s. She worked as a salesperson and later stenotypist. She was involved in organised labour and from 1961 worked for the Chamber for Workers and Employees. [3]
Starting in 1971, Elfriede Karl was state secretary for family affairs in the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky. In 1979, the Ministry of Finance became responsible for family policy, and Karl became a state secretary there. In 1983, when Fred Sinowatz became Chancellor of Austria, the Federal Ministry for Family, Youth and Consumer Protection was created with Elfriede Karl as its first minister. [3] In 1975, while she was state secretary, Austrian abortion law was relaxed. During her time as family minister, the maximum length of parental leave in Austria was extended to two years and parents were granted the right to split their time on leave. Karl was also in favour of granting family benefits to unmarried couples and single parents. [1]
Jürgen Trittin 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.
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl is a German doctor and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), she was president of the People's Chamber of East Germany from April to October 1990. During this time, she was also the interim head of state of East Germany, holding both posts until the state's merger into West Germany in October. She was the youngest, only female and the last head of state of East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, she served in the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, first as Minister for Special Affairs, one of five appointed in 1991 to provide representation for the last East German government in the Kohl cabinet, then as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Health for the remainder of Chancellor Kohl's time in office.
Brigitte Zypries is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Between 2017 and 2018, she served as Minister for Economics and Energy in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel; she was the first woman to hold that office in German history.
Karl Ernst Thomas de Maizière is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 2009 to 2011 and 2013 to 2018, as well as Federal Minister of Defence from 2011 to 2013. He previously served as Head of the Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the First Merkel cabinet from 2005 to 2009. Since 2009, he has been a member of the Bundestag for Meißen.
The Government of Austria is the executive cabinet of the Republic of Austria. It consists of the chancellor, who is the head of government, the vice chancellor and the ministers.
Michael Spindelegger is an Austrian politician. He served in the cabinet of Chancellor Werner Faymann as foreign minister of Austria from 2008 to 2013 and as finance minister from 2013 to 2014; additionally, he held the office of vice-chancellor from 2011 to 2014. Spindelegger was also the leader of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) from 2011 to 2014. In August 2014 he unexpectedly resigned from all political positions. Since 2016, he has been serving as Director General of the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
Karl-Josef Laumann is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Since 2017, he has been the State Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, an office he previously held between 2005 and 2010.
Dorothee Gisela Renate Maria Bär is a German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2002. From 2014 to 2021, she served in various capacities in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Anke Fuchs was a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She was Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health (1982) and Vice President of the Bundestag (1998–2002). From 2003 until 2010, she was the president of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The Federal Chancellery of Austria is the ministry led by the chancellor of Austria. Since the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1918, the Chancellery building has served as the venue for the sessions of the Austrian cabinet. It is located on the Ballhausplatz in the centre of Vienna, vis-à-vis the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Like Downing Street, Quai d'Orsay or – formerly – Wilhelmstrasse, the address has become a synecdoche for governmental power.
Reinhold Mitterlehner is an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who served as minister of economy in Austria's government from 2008 until 2017. In September 2014 he also became vice chancellor of Austria and chairman of the ÖVP. On 9 May 2016 he briefly assumed powers and duties as Acting Chancellor of Austria while his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, underwent a change in leadership. After a series of quarrels within the grand coalition as well as his own party, Mitterlehner announced his resignation on 10 May 2017, which became effective on 17 May 2017.
Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks is a German politician (SPD) who served as State Minister (Senator) for Health and Consumer Protection of the city state of Hamburg in the Senates Scholz I, II and Tschentscher from 2011 until 2020.
Karoline Edtstadler is an Austrian lawyer and politician who has served as minister for the EU and the Constitution at the Austrian Chancellery in the governments of Chancellors Sebastian Kurz, Alexander Schallenberg and Karl Nehammer since 2020. A member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), she previously served as a State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior from 2017 to 2019 and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 until 2020.
Alexander Georg Nicolas Schallenberg is an Austrian diplomat, jurist, and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Chancellor Karl Nehammer since 2021, previously holding the office from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), he held the position in the second government of Sebastian Kurz, before briefly serving as 28th chancellor of Austria as Kurz's successor from 11 October to 6 December 2021.
Karl Nehammer is an Austrian politician who has been the 29th chancellor of Austria since 2021. A member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), he previously was Minister of the Interior from 2020 to 2021, general secretary of the ÖVP from 2018 to 2020, as well as a member of the National Council from 2017 to 2020. Nehammer assumed the chancellorship as the successor of Alexander Schallenberg, who resigned to return as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Daniela Kluckert is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Berlin since 2017.
Anette Kramme is a German lawyer and politician of the SPD who has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria since 1998.
Caren Marks is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Lower Saxony from 2002 until 2021. Since 2013, she has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Sabine Katharina Weiss is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009.
Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from Rhein-Sieg-Kreis I in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005.