chemist entrepreneur politician
University of Göttingen. University of Reading.
She has been the Speaker of the Alternative for Germany with Jörg Meuthen since 2015. In 1992 her family moved to Bergkamen in Westphalia. Petry took her first degree in chemistry at the University of Reading in 1998, before attending the University of Göttingen, gaining a doctoral degree there in 2004.
In 2007 Petry founded her own business, PURinvent, a Leipzig-based manufacturer of polyurethane tire fill products.
In her party she represents the national conservative faction and supports right-wing policies. In a public statement she praised far-right and anti-Islamic movement Pegida for their communality.
She has four children and lives in Tautenhain, Saxony. Sven Petry has since joined the Christian Democratic Union. Petry was the source of controversy in January 2016 when she stated in an interview with the regional newspaper Mannheimer Morgen that German border police must "use firearms if necessary" to “prevent illegal border crossings".
She added that no policeman "wants to fire on a refugee and I don"t want that either" but "police must stop refugees entering German soil.".
Royal Society of Chemistry.