Holder of the second-highest office of state: Julia Klöckner

Julia Klöckner (CDU/CSU) was elected President of the German Bundestag on 25 March 2025. She is the fourth woman to head Parliament, following on from Bärbel Bas (SPD, 2021-2025), Professor Rita Süssmuth (CDU/CSU, 1988-1998) and Annemarie Renger (SPD, 1972-1976). Julia Klöckner has sat in Parliament – with one extended break – since 2002. In the elections for the Bundestag’s 21st electoral term, she won constituency 200 (Kreuznach) with a 32.3 percent share of the vote. 

Experience in federal and state-level policy

Born on 16 December 1972 in Bad Kreuznach, Julia Klöckner grew up on her family’s vineyard in the Nahe region of Rhineland-Palatinate. She studied theology, political science and education in Mainz and worked as a journalist. In 2002, she embarked on a career in politics as a member of the Christian Democrats. She was a Member of the Bundestag from 2002 until 2011, and again from 2021. In the 20th electoral term she was spokeswoman on economic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. 

For a decade between 2012 and 2022, Julia Klöckner was deputy party chairwoman of the CDU, and since January 2022 she has acted as federal treasurer in the CDU’s presidium. From 2018 until 2021 she was Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Previously, she held the office of Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture from 2009 until 2011. 

During these periods, she was also active in federal state politics and chaired the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate from 2010 until 2022, and the CDU parliamentary group in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament from 2011 until 2018. In March 2025, she succeeded Bärbel Bas as President of the Bundestag. This marks the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany that a woman has succeeded another woman in the country’s second-highest office.