Wiebke Esdar

Wiebke Esdar
Member of the Bundestag
for Bielefeld – Gütersloh II
Incumbent
Assumed office
24 September 2017
Preceded byChristina Kampmann [de]
Personal details
Born (1984-02-11) 11 February 1984 (age 40)
Bielefeld, West Germany
(now Germany)
Political partySPD
Alma materUniversity of Bielefeld

Wiebke Esdar (born 11 February 1984) is a German psychologist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2017 election, when she won the constituency of Bielefeld – Gütersloh II with 33.2% of the votes.[1]

Early life and education

Esdar was born in Bielefeld. She studied psychology, social sciences and history at the University of Bielefeld and received her PhD degree in psychology in 2015.

Political career

Career in local politics

Esdar has been a member of the SPD since 2005 and became the chairwoman of the SPD in Bielefeld in 2016.[2]

Member of the German Parliament, 2017–present

Esdar has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 2017 elections, representing Bielefeld and Gütersloh. In parliament, served on the Finance Committee[3] and the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment from 2018 to 2021. In this capacity, she was her parliamentary group's rapporteur on universities. Since 2021, she has been part of the Budget Committee and the Audit Committee.[4] In 2022, she also joined the parliamentary body charged with overseeing a 100 billion euro special fund to strengthen Germany’s armed forces.

Within the SPD parliamentary group, Esdar belongs to the Parliamentary Left, a left-wing movement; she has been co-chairing the group since 2022, alongside Matthias Miersch and Sönke Rix.[5] Since 2023, she has been leading the Bundestag group of SPD parliamentarians from North Rhine-Westphalia, the largest delegation within the party’s parliamentary group, alongside Dirk Wiese.[6]

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Esdar was part of her party's delegation in the working group on innovation and research, co-chaired by Thomas Losse-Müller, Katharina Fegebank and Lydia Hüskens.[7]

Other activities

Corporate boards

  • Stadtwerke Bielefeld, Member of the Supervisory Board[8]
  • Stadtwerke Gütersloh, Member of the Supervisory Board

Non-profit organizations

Personal life

Esdar is married to fellow SPD politician Veith Lemmen. They have a son.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Results Bielefeld – Gütersloh II – The Federal Returning Officer". www.bundeswahlleiter.de. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Deutscher Bundestag – Dr. Wiebke Esdar". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  3. ^ Wiebke Esdar SPD Parliamentary Group.
  4. ^ Wiebke Esdar Bundestag.
  5. ^ Members Parliamentary Left.
  6. ^ Alexander Graßhoff (3 July 2023), Neue Doppelspitze: Bielefelderin Esdar führt mächtige NRW-Landesgruppe der SPD im Bundestag Neue Westfälische.
  7. ^ Britt-Marie Lakämper (October 21, 2021), SPD, Grüne, FDP: Diese Politiker verhandeln die Ampel-Koalition Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
  8. ^ Sebastian Kaiser (17 May 2021), Sie ist die jüngste Chefin im Aufsichtsrat dieses Bielefelder Unternehmens Neue Westfälische.
  9. ^ Senate Leibniz Association.
  10. ^ University Council Vietnamese-German University (VGU).
  11. ^ Einsetzung eines Wirtschaftspolitischen Beirats Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, press release of March 23, 2020.
  12. ^ Wiebke Esdar zieht’s nach Werther Westfalen-Blatt, 30 September 2020.