16 Facts About Angelika Barbe

Angelika Barbe is a German biologist who became a politician.

Angelika Barbe has been identified with a certain "moral rigour" which was on display in 1996 when she switched her political allegiance from the Social Democratic Party to the CDU because she found her SPD party colleagues unnecessarily accommodating with the Party of Democratic Socialism.

Angelika Barbe's father was a freelance landscape gardener who later worked as a builder in a cooperative.

Angelika Barbe attended school at Schenkenberg and, between 1966 and 1970, at Jeserig nearby.

Angelika Barbe encountered major difficulties in obtaining permission to sit the exam because by this time her parents were listed by the authorities as "negative and hostile" because they made a point of boycotting the country's phony elections.

Angelika Barbe was able to pass the exam in this way without compromising her political independence.

Angelika Barbe studied Biology at Berlin's Humboldt University between 1970 and 1974, with a particular focus on behavioural aspects.

Angelika Barbe joined the local church council and over time began to take a closer interest in potentially political issues such as environmental concerns, human rights and pacifism.

Angelika Barbe was one of the small group of people who on 7 October 1989 formed a new incarnation of the Social Democratic Party in the Berlin area of East Germany.

Angelika Barbe was voted the party's number 2 spokesperson and, in January 1990, its deputy chair.

Angelika Barbe was a member between March and October 1990, serving as chair of the parliamentary committee on women and family.

Angelika Barbe was not favoured by the party officials in Berlin with an easily winnable position on the national party list, instead being pitched against Gregor Gysi of the PDS in the East Berlin electoral district.

Angelika Barbe was not re-elected in 1994, and a period of unemployment followed.

Angelika Barbe nevertheless remained politically concerned, in December 1996 switching her political allegiance from the Social Democratic Party to the CDU because she objected to her SPD party comrades entering into political alliances with the Party of Democratic Socialism.

Angelika Barbe was joined in switching from national left-wing parties to the CDU by other former citizen rights activists from the East German period, such as Gunter Nooke and Vera Lengsfeld.

Angelika Barbe has been actively involved between 2000 and 2017 with the Saxony Regional Office for Political Education.