Background
Pieper was born in Halle in the former German Democratic Republic.
Pieper was born in Halle in the former German Democratic Republic.
After her Abitur she studied Polish and Russian in Leipzig and Warsaw. She finished in 1982 with a Diplom.
She currently serves as German consul general in Gdańsk, Poland. Pieper previously served as Minister of State at the Foreign Office under Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in the Second Cabinet Merkel (since 28 October 2009). She was secretary general of her party from 2001 to 2005.
Since 2005, she has been deputy chairwoman of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party).
She worked as an interpreter in the tourism and cultural sector until 1985 after which she was employed in the Information Technology department at a television production company in Halle.
Since 1996 she has worked as a freelance translator. From 1987 to 1990 Pieper was engaged at the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany.
In 1995 she became chairwoman of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) in Saxony-Anhalt, which she still is today. From 1997 to 2001 she was deputy chairwoman of the federal Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party). In May 2005 Pieper once again was elected deputy chairwoman of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party).
In 1998 Pieper was for the first time elected into the Bundestag.
There she was deputy chairwoman of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party)"s parliamentary group from 1998 to 2001.
Pieper was elected top candidate of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) for the State elections in Saxony-Anhalt 2002. The party gained 13,3% of the votes. That was a satisfactory result, since the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) hadn"t even gained the necessary 5% at the previous State elections in 1998.
Therefore, Pieper was one more time elected into the Landtag.
Between October 1997 and June 2001 she was the deputy chairwoman of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) parliamentary group and was group’s spokesperson on research policy. She was the chairwoman of the Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment from February to October 2005 and then as deputy chairwoman from November 2005 to October 2009.
Between 2005 and 2009, she also served as Deputy Chairwoman of the German-Polish Parliamentary Friendship Group. Following the 2009 federal elections, Pieper was part of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) team in the negotiations with the Christian Democratic Union/Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) on a coalition agreement.
She was part of the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) delegation in the working group on education and research policy, led by Annette Schavan and Andreas Pinkwart.
From 2009 to 2013, Pieper served as the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, responsible for cultural relations and education policy. In an 2012 interview with Deutsche Welle, she commented: "There is no freedom of speech, freedom of opinion or freedom of the arts and culture in Russia. lieutenant makes me queasy to look at the developments currently happening in Russia."
In 2014, Pieper was nominated as German consul general in Gdańsk, Poland.
A close political ally of Guido Westerwelle, she supported him from 2001 to 2005 as the party"s secretary general.
In 1990 she joined the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) and since that time she has been a member of the party"s executive board in the State of Saxony-Anhalt. She has also been a member of the federal executive board since 1993. From 1990 to 1994 Pieper was a member of the Landtag in Saxony-Anhalt.
Pieper served as a member of the Bundestag again from 2002 to 2013.
During her time in office, she publicly criticised Russia’s human rights policy, particularly after the arrest of members of the protest group Pussy Riot.