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Karin Prien
Karin Prien (née Kraus; born 26 June 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving Federal Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since 2025; she is the first woman of Jewish ancestry to head a ministry in a post-war German government.
From 2017 to 2025, Prien served as State Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein in the government of Minister-President Daniel Günther. Since 2022, she has been one of four deputy chairs of the CDU, under the leadership of chairman Friedrich Merz.
Born in Amsterdam, Prien is Jewish and first grew up in the Netherlands, where her maternal grandparents had fled in the early 1930s before the emergence of National Socialism in Germany. She later moved to Germany.
After graduation (Abitur) in 1984 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Prien studied law and political science in Bonn. From 1986 to 1989, she was a student assistant of Friedbert Pflüger, then the press secretary of the Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker. She took the first Staatsexamen in 1989, which was followed by the LL.M. after postgraduate studies in Amsterdam in 1991 and the second Staatsexamen in Celle in 1994.
Since 1994, Prien has been an independent lawyer specializing in commercial and insolvency law in Hanover, Leipzig and Hamburg. Since 2008, she has been a certified lawyer for commercial and corporate law, and also a mediator since 2011.
Prien became a member of the CDU in 1981. She was from 2004 to April 2012 deputy CDU local chairwoman in Blankenese, from 2006 Deputy District Chairwoman in the district association Altona-Elbvororte, and since 2010 a member of the CDU state executive committee. From January 2014 she had been local chairwoman of the CDU in Blankenese, an office she passed on to Johann Riekers after her move to Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, Prien is chairwoman of the Jewish Forum of the CDU.
As a candidate of the CDU in her constituency of Blankenese, Prien was elected to the Hamburg state parliament in 2011 for the first time. She was a political spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group and a member of the parliamentary group's leadership.
In the 2015 state election, Prien again won a direct mandate in the constituency of Blankenese with 11.5 percent of the votes. In the parliament, she was a member of the Budget Committee, the Constitution and District Committee, the School Committee and the Committee on Social Affairs, Labor and Integration. She was Deputy Group Chair and Specialist for the School and Constitution of the CDU. In the course of her change to the state government of Schleswig-Holstein, she resigned in June 2017 from the Hamburg Parliament; her parliament mandate was taken over by Wolfhard Ploog.
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Karin Prien
Karin Prien (née Kraus; born 26 June 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving Federal Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since 2025; she is the first woman of Jewish ancestry to head a ministry in a post-war German government.
From 2017 to 2025, Prien served as State Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein in the government of Minister-President Daniel Günther. Since 2022, she has been one of four deputy chairs of the CDU, under the leadership of chairman Friedrich Merz.
Born in Amsterdam, Prien is Jewish and first grew up in the Netherlands, where her maternal grandparents had fled in the early 1930s before the emergence of National Socialism in Germany. She later moved to Germany.
After graduation (Abitur) in 1984 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Prien studied law and political science in Bonn. From 1986 to 1989, she was a student assistant of Friedbert Pflüger, then the press secretary of the Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker. She took the first Staatsexamen in 1989, which was followed by the LL.M. after postgraduate studies in Amsterdam in 1991 and the second Staatsexamen in Celle in 1994.
Since 1994, Prien has been an independent lawyer specializing in commercial and insolvency law in Hanover, Leipzig and Hamburg. Since 2008, she has been a certified lawyer for commercial and corporate law, and also a mediator since 2011.
Prien became a member of the CDU in 1981. She was from 2004 to April 2012 deputy CDU local chairwoman in Blankenese, from 2006 Deputy District Chairwoman in the district association Altona-Elbvororte, and since 2010 a member of the CDU state executive committee. From January 2014 she had been local chairwoman of the CDU in Blankenese, an office she passed on to Johann Riekers after her move to Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, Prien is chairwoman of the Jewish Forum of the CDU.
As a candidate of the CDU in her constituency of Blankenese, Prien was elected to the Hamburg state parliament in 2011 for the first time. She was a political spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group and a member of the parliamentary group's leadership.
In the 2015 state election, Prien again won a direct mandate in the constituency of Blankenese with 11.5 percent of the votes. In the parliament, she was a member of the Budget Committee, the Constitution and District Committee, the School Committee and the Committee on Social Affairs, Labor and Integration. She was Deputy Group Chair and Specialist for the School and Constitution of the CDU. In the course of her change to the state government of Schleswig-Holstein, she resigned in June 2017 from the Hamburg Parliament; her parliament mandate was taken over by Wolfhard Ploog.
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