Background

Ethnicity: With mostly German ancestry Ursula von der Leyen is also of British, Italian, and French descent.

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen was born Ursula Gertrud Albrecht on October 8, 1958, in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium to the family of Ernst Albrecht and Heidi Adele Stromeyer. Her father worked for the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community, precursors to the European Union, before moving back to Germany where he pursued a career in regional politics. He became premier of Lower Saxony in 1976, a position he held until 1990 (he lost reelection that year to Gerhard Schröder, who would go on to become German chancellor). Her mother had a university doctorate and academic success was much encouraged.

Education

In 1964-1971 Ursula von der Leyen studied at the European School, Brussels. The family moved to Hannover in 1971 and von der Leyen continued at the Gymnasium Lehrte which she graduated in 1976. In 1977 Ursula von der Leyen began studies in Economics at the University of Göttingen. The University of Göttingen is the largest and oldest university in the Lower Saxony region. After a while, she moved to the University of Münster. Unfortunately, in those years the German terrorist group Red Army was committing assassinations against prominent politicians and their relatives. To prevent a misfortune, in 1977 her father sent von der Leyen to London to protect her from a possible attack. There she studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science under a false name, Rose Ladson, and was protected by Scotland Yard. In 1980, von der Leyen decided to change her university career; She returned to Germany and began studying Medicine at the Hannover Medical School, which is among the highest performing universities in Germany. She graduated in 1987 completing her doctorate in medicine in 1991. In 2001 she also earned a Master of Public Health. In September 2015 von der Leyen was publicly accused of plagiarism but the investigation in March 2016 concluded that while the thesis contains plagiarism, no intention to deceive could be proven.

Career

Ursula von der Leyen worked as an assistant physician (1988-1992) at the Hannover Medical School's gynecological clinic and in 1991 was awarded a doctorate in medicine. She lived (1992-1996) in the United States while her husband, Heiko von der Leyen, was on the faculty at Stanford University. After her return to Germany, she served as a faculty member (1998-2002) at the Hannover Medical School's department of epidemiology, social medicine, and health systems research.

After the Christian Democratic Union won the federal elections in 2005, von der Leyen was appointed minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women, and youth in Chancellor Angela Merkel's first cabinet. In 2009 she was elected a member of the Bundestag (parliament) and became minister of labor and social affairs. While she held that post, the ongoing financial crisis compelled her to make cuts to welfare spending. In late 2010 von der Leyen was elected deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union.

In December 2013 von der Leyen - seen by some as a possible successor to Merkel - became the first woman to hold the defense portfolio. In that post, she endeavored to reform the Bundeswehr (federal armed forces) while dealing with a number of challenges. In March 2014 Crimea, which was part of Ukraine, was annexed by Russia. The crisis sparked new concerns about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) capabilities, especially after an independent review of Germany's defense ministry, released in October 2014, uncovered scores of "problems and risks" in its procurement process. Doubts that the country could fulfill its military commitment to NATO, owing to a lack of battle-ready equipment, led some allies to pressure Germany to increase its military spending.

In February 2018 a survey of German military equipment found that only a fraction of key weapons systems were combat-ready. Fewer than one-third of Germany's combat aircraft, fewer than half of its tanks, and just three of its heavy transport aircraft were available for deployment. Von der Leyen reacted to the findings by saying that it would take time to make up for decades of spending shortfalls, and Merkel’s government committed to a significant increase in its defense budget. The defense spending target of 1.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2024 remained short of the 2.0 percent agreed upon by NATO leaders in 2014, however, and the Bundeswehr struggled to reach expanded manpower goals.

In October 2018, after a poor showing by the Christian Democratic Union in regional elections, Merkel announced that she would not seek another term as party leader. Von der Leyen declined to campaign for the position, which was eventually filled by Merkel protégé Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. That von der Leyen, who had once been regarded as Merkel's heir apparent, did not even present herself as a candidate was seen by some as evidence that the defense portfolio continued to be a poisoned chalice. With her domestic political career apparently stalled and parliament probing irregularities and possible nepotism within the defense department procurement process, von der Leyen’s deliverance would come from an unexpected source.

The term of European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was scheduled to end in November 2019, and his replacement was to be selected by the European Council - the heads of government of the 28 member countries of the EU. Final approval would rest with the European Parliament, but that process was complicated by the results of elections in May 2019, which saw the centrist ruling coalition lose its long-held majority. When closed-door negotiations began in June 2019, EU leaders struggled to find a compromise candidate who would be acceptable to the center-right and center-left blocs while garnering support from enough Green, liberal, and Euroskeptic members of the European Parliament to win confirmation.

After a fruitless summit resulted in little more than the elimination of the three leading candidates, European Council President Donald Tusk shepherded a package deal that filled the EU's top roles with a quartet of western Europeans. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was nominated to succeed Tusk, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell was tapped to inherit the foreign policy portfolio from Federica Mogherini, and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde was selected to follow Mario Draghi at the head of the European Central Bank. Most surprising, however, was the nomination of von der Leyen to succeed Juncker as president of the European Commission. Although she was the daughter of an esteemed European Community official, von der Leyen herself was seen as something of an outsider to the Brussels establishment, and, despite the fact that she had received the endorsement of the centrist and liberal parliamentary blocs, there remained doubts about the likelihood of her confirmation.

On July 16, 2019, von der Leyen was narrowly confirmed, receiving 383 of 747 votes (with 374 needed). The following day she resigned as Germany’s defense minister and was succeeded by Kramp-Karrenbauer. Von der Leyen was due to replace Juncker on November 1, but disagreements over the makeup of her cabinet delayed the transfer of power by one month. On December 1 she became the first woman to serve as president of the European Commission.

Achievements

• Ursula von der Leyen was appointed president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, in July 2019. She is the first woman to serve in the role, which is responsible for legislation affecting more than 700 million Europeans. From 2005 until 2019, von der Leyen served in Angela Merkel's cabinet - the longest tenure of any cabinet member. In 2019 and again in 2020, Forbes listed her as the fourth most powerful woman in the world.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Wir müssen unser Land für die Frauen verändern 2007
  • Familie gewinnt: Die Allianz und ihre Wirkungen für Unternehmen und Gesellschaft 2007

Religion

Von der Leyen is a Lutheran member of the Evangelical Church of Germany just as her husband and children are.

Politics

Ursula von der Leyen, who had joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1990, became involved in 1996 in the politics of Lower Saxony - the federal state her father had governed (1976-1990). She held a series of local and state offices prior to her election in 2004 as a member of the Christian Democratic Unions's leadership committee.

Views

Among von der Leyen's measures to address Germany's low birth rate were the implementation of paid parental leave from work following the birth of a child and a massive expansion of child care facilities.

Von der Leyen publicly called for her country to assume a greater role in Europe’s defense, and she later helped secure funds for military equipment. Another crisis developed in 2015 as a wave of refugees arrived in Europe, with many seeking asylums in Germany. The situation strained resources and led to anti-immigration efforts. Von der Leyen urged restraint, arguing that it was a mistake to equate refugees with terrorists. Her position, however, drew increasing pushback following terrorist attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016).

Von der Leyen proposed extending recruiting efforts to foreign European Union (EU) nationals who had been long-term residents of Germany, but other EU leaders expressed concerns about how such efforts might affect their own military readiness.

In September 2020, in her first state of the union speech as commissioner, von der Leyen spoke out against anti-LGBTQ policies in Poland.

Personality

Ursula von der Leyen is considered a strong woman: a fully qualified physician, mother of seven children, an accomplished dressage rider, and one of the most experienced female German politicians. She is able to work in close collaboration and to achieve viable compromises, skills she has learned within the complex power structures of Germany’s federal republic.

Interests

• horses

• Sport & Clubs

  dressage riding

Connections

In 1986, Ursula Albrecht married her fellow student, Heiko von der Leyen, who belongs to an aristocratic family of silk industrialists. From then on, her name began to be Ursula von der Leyen. Heiko von der Leyen is a professor of medicine and executive director of a medical engineering company. Ursula and Heiko von der Leyen met in the Göttingen University Choir. They have seven children: David (1987), Sophie (1989), Donata (1992), the twins Victoria and Johanna (1994), Egmont (1998), and Gracia (1999).

Father:

Ernst Carl Julius Albrecht

Mother:

Heidi Adele Stromeyer

husband:

Heiko von der Leyen

Son:

David von der Leyen

Daughter:

Sophie von der Leyen

Daughter:

Donata von der Leyen

Daughter:

Victoria von der Leyen

Daughter:

Johanna von der Leyen

Son:

Egmont von der Leyen

Daughter:

Gracia von der Leyen

Friend:

Angela Merkel

Acquaintance:

Henry Kissinger

References

• Ursula von der Leyen: Die Biografie
  2019
• Kanzlerin der Reserve: Der Aufstieg der Ursula von der Leyen
  2015
• Kinderbetreuung. Was u.a. Dr. Ursula von der Leyen dazu sagt: Reihe Quellensammlung: Aktuelle politische Reden in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
  2011