Christine Lieberknecht
Christine Lieberknecht (born 7 May 1958) is a German politician of the CDU. From 2009 to 2014, she was Minister-President of the state of Thuringia.
Early life
Christine Lieberknecht was born in Weimar and grew up in the village of Leutenthal in central Thuringia. Her father was a Lutheran pastor there. She finished school in 1976, studied theology in Jena and became a Lutheran pastor, too.
Politics
Christine Lieberknecht was a member of the CDU of East Germany since 1981. In September 1989, she was one of the four people who wrote the "Letter from Weimar". In that letter they demanded that the CDU should no longer work together with the SED.
After the German reunification in 1990, Thuringia became a state of Germany. Lieberknecht held many offices in the state: Minister of Education from 1990 to 1992; Minister of Federal and European Affairs from 1992 to 1999; President of the Landtag of Thuringia from 1999 to 2004; leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Thuringia from 2004 to 2008 and Minister of Social Affairs from 2008 to 2009.
In 2009 the CDU lost their absolute majority in the state election in Thuringia. The Minister-President of Thuringia, Dieter Althaus, resigned. The CDU formed a coalition with the SPD and Christine Lieberknecht became Minister-President. She is also the chairperson of the CDU in Thuringia.
Christine Lieberknecht is the second woman that became Minister-President of a German state. The first was Heide Simonis in the state of Schleswig-Holstein in 1993.