Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen
Date of Birth: 08.10.1958
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen - President of the European Commission, German politician.
Place of Birth. Education. Ursula was born on October 8, 1958, in Ixelles, Brussels, where her father worked for the European Commission, and lived in Belgium until she was 13 years old. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, a prominent politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, was the former Minister-President of Lower Saxony. In 1971, the family moved to Lehrte near Hanover.
After graduating from high school in Lehrte, Ursula von der Leyen continued her education at the universities of Göttingen and Münster, where she studied economics. In 1978, she also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She then studied medicine at the Hanover Medical School, finishing in 1987 with a doctorate.
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From 1988 to 1992, she worked as an assistant doctor in the gynecology department of the Hanover University Clinic. After her promotion in 1991, Ursula von der Leyen defended her doctoral thesis.
From 1992 to 1996, she lived with her family in Stanford, California, where her husband worked as a lecturer at Stanford University.
From 1998 to 2002, she was a lecturer at the Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine, and Health Systems Research at the Hanover Medical School, where she earned a master's degree in public health in 2001.
Ursula von der Leyen speaks French and English.
Political Activity. In 1990, Ursula von der Leyen joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
In 2003, Ursula von der Leyen was elected to the Lower Saxony Landtag and was a member of the cabinet of the Minister of the Lower Saxony state government in the government of Christian Wulff for social affairs, women, family, and health from 2003 to 2005.
In 2005, she became Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in Angela Merkel's cabinet.
In the 2009 federal elections, Ursula von der Leyen was elected to the Bundestag. She replaced Franz Josef Jung as Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs on November 30, 2009. Ursula was considered the main candidate for the nomination of the governing parties CDU/CSU and FDP for the office of Federal President in the 2010 elections, but Christian Wulff was ultimately elected as the candidate.
On December 17, 2013, she became Minister of Defense (the first woman in this position). On July 17, 2019, Ursula von der Leyen officially resigned from the position of Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany.
On July 2, 2019, the European Council nominated Ursula von der Leyen for the position of President of the European Commission. On July 16, 2019, the Members of the European Parliament voted for the candidacy of the former Minister of Defense of Germany, Ursula von der Leyen, as President of the European Commission. She took office in December 2019.
Views. Ursula von der Leyen advocates for an increase in defense spending by European NATO members, strengthening cooperation between EU countries in the military sphere, transforming the EU into a defense union, and moving towards a European army.
Ursula von der Leyen believes that the EU should engage in dialogue with Russia from a position of strength because 'the Kremlin does not forgive weakness.'
Family. Ursula von der Leyen is married to Heiko von der Leyen, a medical professor and business leader (medical technology), who comes from the old noble family of Leyen. The couple has seven children: David Echt (b. 1987), Sophie Charlotte (b. 1989), Maria Donata (b. 1992), twins Victoria Ursula and Johanna Gertrud (b. 1994), Egmont Ulrich (b. 1998) and Gracia Diotima (b. 1999).
18.09.2023