Steffi Lemke

Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

Steffi Lemke

Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

Biography

I was born in Dessau on the Elbe and grew up there. I began studying agricultural sciences in Berlin in 1988. In 1989, I helped found the party die GRÜNE (the Green party) of the GDR. From 1994 to 2002, I served as a member of the Bundestag for BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN (the Greens). The last four years of this period, I was Parliamentary Secretary. In 2002, my party elected me to the office of federal party manager, which I held until 2013. Since the federal elections of 2013, I have been a member of the Bundestag. Up until 2021, I was Parliamentary Secretary and Nature Conservation Spokesperson of the Greens parliamentary group.

Key professional and political dates
  • 1974 to 1984: attended Dessau polytechnical secondary school
  • 1984 to 1986: training as an agricultural technician in a dairy
  • 1986 to 1988: worked as a postal carrier
  • 1986 to 1988: evening school and university entrance qualification in Dessau
  • 1988 to 1993: studies in agricultural sciences at Humboldt University, Berlin
  • 1989: founding member of the Green party in the GDR
  • 1993 to 1994: member of the Saxony-Anhalt Greens state executive committee
  • 1994 to 2002: member of the Bundestag
  • 2002 to 2013: federal party manager of the Greens
  • since 2013: member of the Bundestag
  • 2013 to 2021: Parliamentary Secretary and Spokesperson for Nature Conservation of the Greens parliamentary group and member of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
  • 2017 to 2021: member of the Council of Elders, member of the Commission on Buildings of the Council of Elders and chair of the parliamentary group “Frei-fließende-Flüsse” (free-flowing rivers)
  • Since December 2021Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection