24 Facts About Claudia Roth

Claudia Roth was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the vice presidents of the Bundestag.

Claudia Roth is currently serving as Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media [de] in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021.

Claudia Roth began her artistic work, which she always regarded as being political, in the 1970s as a trained artistic director at a theatre in Memmingen.

Claudia Roth then worked at the municipal theatre in Dortmund and the Hoffmanns-Comic-Teater, and subsequently began managing the political rock band "Ton Steine Scherben" until 1985, when the band disbanded due to the band's high debt burden.

Claudia Roth came into contact with the Green party on election campaign tours.

In West Germany's 1989 European elections, Roth was elected for the first time as a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens.

Claudia Roth served as a member of the new Committee on Civic Liberties and Internal Affairs, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights.

From 1989 to 1990, Claudia Roth briefly served as deputy chairperson of the Green Group in the European Parliament.

Claudia Roth was chairperson of the Green Group in the European Parliament until 1998, first alongside co-chairman Alexander Langer and later Magda Aelvoet.

Claudia Roth remained involved with the Committee on Foreign Affairs as a substitute member.

Claudia Roth became a member of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union and a substitute member of the Committee on Internal Affairs of the German Bundestag.

Between March 2003 and October 2004, in Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's second cabinet, Claudia Roth served as the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office.

Claudia Roth served as deputy chairwoman of the German-Iranian Parliamentary Friendship Group between 2005 and 2009 and held the same office in the German-Turkish Friendship Group between 2005 and 2013.

Claudia Roth was elected as Vice-President of the German Bundestag on 22 October 2013.

Claudia Roth serves as a member of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development as well as of the Sub-Committee on Cultural Relations and Education Policy.

In June 2013, Claudia Roth was at the surroundings of the Taksim Square when the police intervened to evacuate Gezi Park and was among those affected by the tear gas fired by security officers.

In May 2017, Claudia Roth canceled a visit of a parliamentary delegation to Turkey where participants had planned to talk to opposition lawmakers, governors and rights groups about that year's constitutional referendum, saying Ankara had refused to give them a security detail.

On Friday 17 March 2006, Claudia Roth reported herself to the German police for displaying a crossed-out swastika on multiple demonstrations against Neo-Nazis, and subsequently got the Bundestag to suspend her immunity from prosecution.

In 2015, Claudia Roth responded to critics of her appearance, stating that for her to have the wart on her nose removed would be "surrender to the patriarchal standards of beauty pushed by the oppressive right-wing".

Shortly after the US launched military operations in Afghanistan in October 2001, Claudia Roth criticized the use of antipersonnel cluster bombs was "not appropriate".

Claudia Roth's statement came a day after some 10,000 people, some of them carrying banners that said "Against repression and war" and "The American way of life is too expensive for our world," turned out in Berlin in a peaceful protest against the bombings.

Claudia Roth has met the Dalai Lama several times during her time in parliament and has been a supporter of the Tibet movement.

In 2015, Claudia Roth addressed the official commemoration of the 56th Tibetan National Uprising day alongside Sikyong Lobsang Sangay in Dharamshala.

Claudia Roth has been criticized for her positive relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.