Anne Spiegel

Anne Spiegel (born 15 December 1980) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. Since 2016, she has served as Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate.[1][2] Prior, she was a prominent youth leader in Germany during the 2000s. She was first elected to the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate in the 2011 state election, and re-elected in 2016.

Anne Spiegel
Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in Rhineland-Palatinate
Assumed office
18 May 2016
Preceded byIrene Alt
Member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate
In office
27 March 2011 – 18 May 2016
ConstituencyParty list
Personal details
Born
Anne Spiegel

(1980-12-15) 15 December 1980
Leimen, Baden-Württemberg
Political partyAlliance 90/The Greens
Children4
ResidenceSpeyer, Rhineland-Palatinate

Personal life

Spiegel has Italian ancestry; among others, her maternal grandmother is from Sicily.[2] Spiegel grew up in Speyer and Ludwigshafen, and attended the Albert Schweitzer elementary school, passing her Abitur in 2000 at the Heinrich Böll grammar school. She then studied politics, philosophy and psychology in Darmstadt, Mainz, Mannheim, and Salamanca until 2007. In spring 2007, she graduated as Master of Arts from the University of Mainz with a major in political science and minors in philosophy and psychology.[1] She then worked as a language teacher at Berlitz in Mainz, Mannheim and Heidelberg from 2008 to 2010. Spiegel lives in Speyer with her husband, who is Scottish, and four children.

Political career

Youth politics

Spiegel was a member of the board of the Green Youth of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1999 to 2002, including two years as board spokeswoman. She then served on the federal board of the Green Youth until 2004.[1]

In 2005, Spiegel became the first German youth delegate to the United Nations.[3] In autumn 2005 she represented young people in Germany at the United Nations General Assembly, where she also met the then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan.

State politics

In the 2006 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Spiegel was the Greens candidate in the constituency of Ludwigshafen am Rhein II, and #7 on the party list. The party fell short of the 5% electoral threshold and failed to win any seats.

In the 2011 state election, Spiegel was the Greens candidate in the constituency of Speyer. She won 17.1% of votes, placing third behind the CDU and SPD candidates. She was third on the party list and was comfortably elected as one of the 18 Greens deputies, becoming deputy leader of the party's parliamentary group in the new Landtag.[4] She served as spokesperson for women, integration, migration, and refugee policy. From 2014 to 2016, Spiegel also served on the Speyer city council.[1]

In the 2016 state election, she was again the Greens candidate in Speyer, this time winning 10.4% of votes. She was again elected third on the party list. After the Greens entered a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and Free Democratic Party, Spiegel became Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in the second Dreyer cabinet.[1] She resigned from the Landtag to join the cabinet and was succeeded by Pia Schellhammer.[5]

State minister

As Minister for Family, Spiegel continued the work of her predecessor Irene Alt in advocating for marriage equality,[6] campaigning for a vote in the Bundestag on the issue. In November 2016, she wrote a protest letter from the Bundesrat to Norbert Lammert, then President of the Bundestag.[7] The initiative undertaken by Spiegel led to the introduction and passage of the Act introducing the right of marriage to persons of the same sex in June 2017.[8]

Spiegel became the first minister in Rhineland-Palatinate to take maternity leave, which she did in April 2018 to give birth to her fourth child.[9] Spiegel brought the baby to a meeting of the Federal Council in October 2018.[10]

In November 2018 she represented the German federal government at the Women MPs Conference on the subject of "100 years of women's suffrage" in London. There she also met then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May. At the meeting, Spiegel urged her to prevent Brexit.[11]

References
  1. "Spiegel Biography" (PDF). Ministry for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection of Rhineland-Palatinate.
  2. "Minister with Sicilian roots". Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz). 25 June 2016.
  3. "Former youth delegates". Jugenddelegierte.de.
  4. "Spiegel focuses on eliminating gender-based discrimination in the world of work". Zwd.info. 8 January 2019.
  5. "Biography of retired deputy Anne Spiegel". Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate.
  6. "Marriage for all". Deutschlandfunk. 21 March 2013.
  7. "Turn the other cheek to lesbians and gays in Germany". Der Tagesspiegel. 7 November 2016.
  8. "Marriage for everyone: Bundestag votes on bill that comes from Rhineland-Palatinate - Bürstädter Zeitung". Bürstädter Zeitung. 18 September 2019.
  9. "Portrait: Integration Minister Anne Spiegel returns to state politics after maternity leave". Volksfreund.de. 13 July 2018.
  10. "Family Minister Spiegel with baby at Federal Council meeting". Die Welt. 19 October 2018.
  11. "Rhineland-Palatinate Minister Anne Spiegel at 10 Downing Street". Allgemeine Zeitung. 9 November 2018.
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