19 Facts About Christine Bergmann

Christine Bergmann was born on 7 September 1939 and is a German politician.

Christine Bergmann grew up in East Germany, embarking on a public political career only at the time of German reunification.

Christine Bergmann passed her school final exams in 1957 and enrolled at Leipzig University in Leipzig to study Pharmacy.

Christine Bergmann passed the relevant exams in 1963 after which, till 1967, she worked as a pharmacist in East Berlin.

Between 1967 and 1977, Bergmann worked on a freelance basis, employed on the administrative side for the National Journal for Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy and Laboratory Diagnostics.

In December 1989, following a series of developments which had opened the way for German reunification, Christine Bergmann joined the newly reconstituted Social Democratic Party, which would merge with its West German counterpart in September 1990.

From May 1990 till January 1991, Christine Bergmann was president of the Berlin city council.

In 1998 Christine Bergmann switched to national politics, accepting an appointment in the Schroder government as Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, in succession to Claudia Nolte.

Christine Bergmann had already shadowed the portfolio in opposition under the SPD party leadership of Rudolf Scharping.

In 1998, less than a decade after reunification and in comparison to its CDU predecessor, Gerhard Schroder's government was short of leading members from the "New Federal states": Christine Bergmann Bermann was the only member of the First Schroder cabinet who had grown up in the old German Democratic Republic.

Christine Bergmann oversaw a number of improvements in the tax treatment of families and significant recalibration of Child Allowance.

Christine Bergmann pressed for the legalisation of prostitution and introduced legislation on parental leave.

Christine Bergmann's reputation was for competence, with a tendency to avoid the limelight.

Christine Bergmann was once quoted as saying of herself that she was not inclined to self-promotion.

Christine Bergmann retired from the government in 2002, but returned to politics in 2004, working with Kurt Biedenkopf as an ombudswoman, observing the impact of the "Hartz" labour market reforms, with a mandate to advise government and parliament on any recommended revisions to it.

Christine Bergmann is a member of the honorary council of AMCHA foundation, an organisation headquartered in Jerusalem which provides practical Psycho-social support for holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Christine Bergmann was succeeded in the post at the end of 2011 by Johannes-Wilhelm Rorig, who back in the early 1990s had temporarily run her office while she was a Berlin senator.

Since June 2011, Christine Bergmann has been a member of the Berlin Future Foundation.

In 2015, Christine Bergmann was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the Universitat Essen-Duisburg's NRW School of Governance.