Karin Prien
Karin Prien
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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.[1]

Key Information

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.[2]

Early life and education

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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.[3] 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.

Early career

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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.[4][5]

Political career

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Early beginnings

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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.[6] In addition, Prien is chairwoman of the Jewish Forum of the CDU.

Member of the Hamburg Parliament, 2011–2017

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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.[7][8]

State Minister of Education in Schleswig-Holstein, 2017–2025

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After formation of a Jamaica coalition of CDU, FDP and Greens in the wake of the 2017 Schleswig-Holstein state election, Prien was appointed Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein on 28 June 2017 and became part of the state government of Minister-President Günther.[9]

In the negotiations to form a fourth coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Prien was part of the working group on education policy, led by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Stefan Müller and Hubertus Heil.

Since 17 November 2018, Prien has been one of the four deputy chairs of the CDU Schleswig-Holstein, succeeding State Minister for Justice Sabine Sütterlin-Waack who did not run for reelection.[10][11] Prien supports the CDU-internal group "Union of the Middle," [12][13][14][15] which is regarded as the counterpart of the conservative "value union."[16]

Ahead of the 2021 elections, CDU chairman Armin Laschet included Prien in his eight-member shadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign.[17]

Prien was nominated by her party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.[18]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prien caused a controversy by tweeting that children were dying "with" Covid and only rarely "because of" it. While the limited data at the time did indeed suggest that only very few deaths of children in Germany could be attributed directly to Covid alone, users criticized Prien's implied assumption that vulnerable children with preexisting conditions did not deserve protection. Prien consequently deactivated her Twitter account.[19]

Upon being appointed to the federal government following the 2025 federal election, Prien was succeeded by Dorit Stenke on 7 May.[20]

Other activities

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  • Nordmetall Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2018)[21]
  • Cultural Foundation of the German States (KdL), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2017)[22]
  • Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2017)[23]
  • Freundeskreis Yad Vashem, Member[24]
  • David Ben-Gurion Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees[25]
  • Haus Rissen, Member of the Board of Trustees[26]
  • Stiftung Lesen, Member of the Board of Trustees[27]
  • ELNET (organization), Member of the advisory council [28]

Political positions

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For the 2021 national elections, Prien endorsed Armin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel.[29]

In early 2022, Prien called for Hans-Georg Maaßen to be expelled from the CDU.[30]

She opposes Gendern, a form of writing in which the three grammatical genders, which are usually represented through different words, are combined by adding special characters within the word.[31][32][33]

Personal life

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Prien is married to lawyer Jochen Prien and has three children.[34]

References

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Karin Prien

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Karin Prien is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has served as Federal Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth since May 2025 in Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government.[1][2] Born on 26 June 1965 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to parents of Jewish ancestry, Prien joined the CDU in 1981 and built her career in education policy, including roles in Hamburg's parliament from 2011 to 2015 before becoming State Minister of Education, Science and Culture in Schleswig-Holstein from 2017 to 2025 under Minister-President Daniel Günther.[1][3][4] Her appointment marks her as the first Jewish woman in a German federal cabinet since the Holocaust, reflecting her prominence in a party emphasizing family, education reform, and integration policies.[4][3]

Early life and education

Birth and ancestry

Karin Prien was born on 26 June 1965 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.[5][6] Her parents have Jewish ancestry, tracing back to families that fled Nazi persecution; her Jewish grandfathers escaped to the Netherlands before the outbreak of World War II.[6][3]

Education and early career

Prien obtained her Abitur, the German higher education entrance qualification, in Neuwied in 1984.[7] She then studied law and political science at the University of Bonn, completing her first state examination in law in 1989.[8] After her legal clerkship (Referendariat) from 1990 to 1994, she passed the second state examination, qualifying her to practice as a lawyer in Germany.[9] From 1994 onward, Prien worked as a lawyer with a focus on commercial and labor law, initially in Hamburg before practicing in Leipzig and Hanover.[10][9] Her early professional roles involved legal advisory and representation in these areas, establishing her expertise prior to entering public office.[11]

Political career

Hamburg Parliament membership

Prien entered party politics after establishing her legal career in Hamburg, where her professional background as a lawyer fostered interest in policy matters. She had been a member of the CDU since 1981 and served on the State Executive Committee of the CDU in Hamburg.[1][7] In the 2011 state election, Prien was elected to the Hamburg Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft) as the CDU candidate for the Blankenese constituency, securing re-election in 2015 and serving until 2017.[1] During this period, she contributed as deputy chairperson of the CDU parliamentary group and as spokesperson for legal policy, focusing on legislative affairs.[2]

Schleswig-Holstein ministerial role

Karin Prien was appointed State Minister of Education, the Science and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein in 2017, serving in the cabinet of Minister-President Daniel Günther until 2025.[12][3] During her tenure, Prien prioritized reforms to enhance teacher training and educational equity, launching the Allianz für Lehrkräftebildung in 2022 to improve recruitment and preparation of educators through university programs and expert recommendations. She also advanced the Perspektivschulen initiative, allocating additional funding to 135 schools in disadvantaged areas to address disparities in student outcomes. In response to weak performance in basic skills, Prien introduced a Handlungsplan in 2023 targeting reading, writing, and arithmetic, framing it as a sustained effort to build foundational competencies. Prien enacted policies promoting school safety and modern competencies, including a ban on private mobile phone possession by primary pupils during school hours and advocacy for a zero-tolerance approach to violence on campuses, stating that "violence is not acceptable, no matter who it comes from."[13][14] She emphasized integrating digital tools into teaching while fostering skills like critical thinking, adaptability, and lifelong learning to prepare students for societal changes such as digitalization and demographic shifts.[10] By her departure, her administration reported achieving 100% teaching coverage for the upcoming school year, with overstaffing at primary levels, though unions contested the metrics for overlooking absences and training gaps. Prien's efforts extended to expanding full-day schooling through a new legal framework granting first-graders a right to all-day care from 2026, alongside participation in federal digitalization programs like Digitalpakt 2.0. Challenges persisted in areas like basic skills improvement and equitable transitions from kindergarten to school, which she described as ongoing priorities requiring long-term commitment beyond electoral cycles.[10]

CDU leadership positions

Karin Prien announced her candidacy for the position of deputy federal chairperson of the CDU in November 2021, expressing her intent to integrate her experiences and perspectives into the party's presidium. She was subsequently elected as one of the deputy chairs at the CDU's federal party congress in January 2022, joining under the leadership of Friedrich Merz.[15][16] In this capacity, Prien has focused on enhancing women's roles within the party, advocating for stronger female occupancy of influential positions to bolster organizational diversity and appeal. Her involvement has extended to shaping the CDU's strategic outlook, including endorsements for policies like a mandatory societal service year incorporating national defense elements, reflecting a conservative ideological emphasis distinct from state-level governance.[17][18]

Federal ministerial appointment

Karin Prien was appointed Federal Minister for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth on 6 May 2025 in Chancellor Friedrich Merz's cabinet, marking her transition to national politics following the CDU-led coalition's formation after the February 2025 federal election.[19][20] Her portfolio encompasses responsibilities for shaping federal policies on education standards, family support systems, senior citizen welfare, gender equality initiatives, and youth development programs.[21] In her initial statements, Prien emphasized priorities such as improving educational outcomes, bolstering family structures, and fostering a resilient democracy amid societal challenges.[14] She advocated for enhanced early childhood support and family-oriented policies, including budget proposals in the 2026 federal plan to strengthen child and family services.[22] Education unions welcomed her expertise from prior state-level roles, urging ambitious reforms to address persistent gaps in schooling and teacher training at the federal level.[23] Prien's appointment leveraged her reputation as a prominent CDU education expert, enabling a seamless shift from regional to nationwide influence in coordinating with the states on education matters under Germany's federal system.[20] Early actions included forming an expert commission in July 2025 to advance pay transparency directives, signaling her focus on integrating gender equity into broader family and labor policies.[24]
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