1. Elisabeth Charlotte Motschmann is a German journalist and politician of the Christian Democratic Union who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from 2013 until 2021.
15 Facts About Elisabeth Motschmann
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Elisabeth Motschmann graduated from school in 1971 and, from 1972 to 1975, studied theology and romance languages at the University of Hamburg and the University of Kiel.
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Elisabeth Motschmann worked as a freelance journalist and publicist until 1993, focusing on family and women's issues, child poverty, and reporting on third world countries.
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Elisabeth Motschmann became a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in the 1970s and was a member of the party's district board of Steinburg and Itzehoe.
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From 2012 until 2021, Elisabeth Motschmann was a member of the federal executive board of the Christian Democratic Union under the leadership of successive chairwomen Angela Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
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In March 2013 Motschmann was elected as a top candidate of the Christian Democratic Union in Bremen for the election of the 18th Bundestag, representing Bremen I In 2015 she was the party's top candidate for the Bremen elections.
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In February 2021, Elisabeth Motschmann announced that she would not stand in that year's federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.
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Since 2022, Elisabeth Motschmann has been working as Senior Policy Advisor at the Berlin office of Portland Communications.
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Since 2009 Elisabeth Motschmann has advocated for women's right to participate in the Schaffermahlzeit, an annual captain's banquet at Bremen City Hall which has historically excluded women.
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Elisabeth Motschmann has advocated for more women on supervisory boards of companies in Germany and for a legally regulated quota for women in leadership positions in the corporate sector.
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Elisabeth Motschmann has distanced herself from her homophobic remarks from the 80s and since expressed an understanding for the queer community.
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In September 2020, Elisabeth Motschmann was one of 15 members of her parliamentary group who joined Norbert Rottgen in writing an open letter to Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer which called on Germany and other EU counties to take in 5000 immigrants who were left without shelter after fires gutted the overcrowded Moria Reception and Identification Centre on the Greek island of Lesbos.
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Ahead of the Christian Democrats' leadership election in 2021, Elisabeth Motschmann publicly endorsed Rottgen to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair.
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Elisabeth Motschmann moved to Bremen in 1987 after her husband was hired as a minister at Saint Martin's Church.
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Elisabeth Motschmann is a practicing Lutheran and member of the Evangelical Church of Germany.