15 Facts About Bettina Stark-Watzinger

Bettina Stark-Watzinger was a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse from 2017 to 2025.

Since 2021, Stark-Watzinger has been the chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger graduated from high school in 1989 and subsequently studied economics at the University of Mainz and the Goethe University Frankfurt from 1989 to 1993.

From 1994 to 1996, Bettina Stark-Watzinger completed a trainee programme at BHF Bank in Frankfurt, where she worked as Regional Manager.

From 2008 until her election to the Bundestag in 2017, Bettina Stark-Watzinger worked as managing director in the commercial department of an interdisciplinary research institution, the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger later became a member of the FDP in 2004.

In 2011, Bettina Stark-Watzinger was elected to the FDP leadership in Hesse, under successive chairpersons Jorg-Uwe Hahn and Stefan Ruppert.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2017 German federal election, representing the Main-Taunus district.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger joined the Budget Committee, where she served as her parliamentary group's rapporteur on the annual budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger was a member of the so-called Confidential Committee of the Budget Committee, which provides budgetary supervision for Germany's three intelligence services, BND, BfV and MAD.

In 2021, Bettina Stark-Watzinger was elected chairwoman of the FDP in Hesse, succeeding Stefan Ruppert.

In March 2023, Bettina Stark-Watzinger became the first German minister to visit Taiwan in 26 years, leading the Chinese Foreign Ministry to file a strong protest with Germany about her "vile conduct".

At the FDP's national convention in April 2023, Bettina Stark-Watzinger was elected by delegates as one of three deputies of chairman Christian Lindner, succeeding Nicola Beer.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger's ministry wanted to initiate an investigation into whether those who signed the letter could be prosecuted and whether their funding could be withdrawn.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger is married to real estate investor Hermann Watzinger and has two daughters.