Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen (2009)
Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 November 2009
Preceded by	Franz Josef Jung
Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
In office 22 November 2005 – 30 November 2009
Preceded by	Renate Schmidt
Succeeded by	Kristina Schröder
Minister of Social Affairs, Women, Family Affairs and Health of Lower Saxony
In office 4 March 2003 – 22 November 2005
Preceded by	Gitta Trauernicht
Succeeded by	Mechthild Ross-Luttmann
Personal details
Born	(1958-10-08) 8 October 1958 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Nationality	German
Political party	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
Spouse(s)	Heiko von der Leyen
Children	7
Alma mater	Hannover Medical School
Profession	Physician
Religion	Lutheran

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (born 8 October 1958 in Ixelles, Brussels) is a German politician of the conservative Christian Democratic Union.

Since 30 November 2009, she has served as the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Second Cabinet Merkel. In the First Cabinet Merkel (2005–2009), she served as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. By profession she is a physician.

Early life

Ursula von der Leyen is the daughter of Ernst (Carl Julius) Albrecht, a prominent CDU politician and European Commission official, as well as a long-time Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.

She was born in Ixelles in Brussels, where her father worked for the European Commission (as a Director-General from 1969), and lived in Belgium until she was 13 years old. In 1971, the family moved to Lehrte in Hanover.

Ursula von der Leyen is a descendant of Baron Ludwig Knoop, a cotton merchant of the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century.

Education

Ursula von der Leyen started her studies in 1977 in the field of economics, at the universities of Göttingen, Münster and London School of Economics. In 1980, she decided to drop her studies in economics, as she was more interested in medicine.^{[citation needed]} Subsequently she began studies at Hanover Medical School, where she graduated in 1987 after seven years.

From 1988 to 1992, she worked as an assistant doctor at the Women's Clinic of the Medical School of the University of Hanover. Upon completing her postgraduate studies, she earned a doctorate in medicine (Dr. med.) in 1991. From 1992 to 1996, while she was in Stanford, California, she lived as a housewife, while her husband was a faculty member of Stanford University.

From 1998 to 2002, she was a faculty member at the Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health System Research at the Medical School of the University of Hanover, where in 2001, she earned a Master's Degree in Public Health. Ursula von der Leyen speaks French and English.

Politics

Ursula von der Leyen joined the CDU in 1990, and became active in politics in 1999, entering local politics in 2001 in the area of Hanover. She was elected to the Parliament of Lower Saxony in 2003, and from 2003 to 2005 she was a cabinet minister in the state government of Lower Saxony in the cabinet of Christian Wulff, responsible for social affairs, women, family and health. In 2005 she was appointed Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.

She was elected to the Bundestag, the Parliament of Germany, in the 2009 federal election. Ursula von der Leyen succeeded Franz Josef Jung as Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs on 30 November 2009. She was initially considered the front runner for the nomination of the ruling CDU/CSU and FDP parties for President of Germany in the 2010 election, but eventually Christian Wulff was chosen as the candidate.

Policies

Childcare and parental leave

Ursula von der Leyen assumed her office as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in 2005. Amidst much protest, particularly from the conservative wing of her own party, the CDU, Ursula von der Leyen introduced the Child Advancement Act (Kinderförderungsgesetz), which reserved 4.3 billion euros to create childcare structures throughout Germany.

Ursula von der Leyen also introduced the German Elternzeit, a paid parental leave scheme which, following Scandinavian models, reserves two additional months for fathers who go on parental leave as well (Vätermonate in German). This part of the law in particular attracted protest from German conservatives. Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa accused von der Leyen of turning women into "Birthing Machines", while Bavarian colleagues from von der Leyen's sister party, the CSU, complained that men did not need a "diaper-changing internship." Von der Leyen successfully influenced public opinion about her reforms with a 3 million Euro PR campaign, which was criticized for using public funds for political advocacy and for employing embedded marketing techniques.

Blocking internet child pornography

Demonstration on 17 April 2009 against the planned mandatory blockage of child pornography.

Ursula von der Leyen advocated the initiation of a mandatory blockage of child pornography on the Internet through Internet service providers via a block list maintained by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA), thus creating the basic infrastructure for extensive censorship of websites deemed illegal by the BKA.

These actions brought her the nickname "Zensursula", a portmanteau word blending the German word for censorship (“Zensur”) and her given name (“Ursula”). The combination of a sensitive topic like child pornography and internet censorship is said to have caused a rising interest in the Pirate Party.

In July 2009 she referred to the problems of struggling against pedophile pornography on the internet as the responsible persons often use servers located in Africa or India, where "child pornography is legal”. This claim was based on a study by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2006; however, child pornography is in fact illegal in India. Indeed, Indian society has much stricter rules about erotic media than Germany. Ursula von der Leyen later expressed regret for having cited an inaccurate study.

Youth protection

She was the main factor behind the ban and the rating of the Rammstein album Liebe ist für alle da by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien.

Personal life

Ursula von der Leyen is married to Heiko von der Leyen, a professor of medicine, the CEO of a business development company (medical engineering) and a member of the House of Leyen, an ancient family of high nobility, that included several Prince-Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ursula and Heiko von der Leyen have seven children, David (1987), Sophie (1989), Maria Donata (1992), twins Victoria and Johanna (1994), Egmont (1998) and Gracia (1999).

Publications

• Ursula von der Leyen, C-reaktives Protein als diagnostischer Parameter zur Erfassung eines Amnioninfektionssyndroms bei vorzeitigem Blasensprung und therapeutischem Entspannungsbad in der Geburtsvorbereitung, doctoral dissertation, Hanover Medical School, 1990
• Ursula von der Leyen, Maria von Welser, Wir müssen unser Land für die Frauen verändern. Bertelsmann, Munich, 2007, ISBN 978-3-570-00959-8
• Ursula von der Leyen, Liz Mohn, Familie gewinnt. Bertelsmann Foundation, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89204-927-2

External links

• Official Site of Ursula von der Leyen (German)