Julia Klöckner (born 16 December 1972) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as President of the German Bundestag since 25 March 2025.
Previously, Klöckner served as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. Since 2012, she has also been part of the CDU leadership.
Klöckner first became known in 1995 when she was chosen as the German Wine Queen (Deutsche Weinkönigin). From 2002 to 2011 she was a Member of Parliament for Kreuznach in the German Bundestag and, from 2009 to February 2011, she was a parliamentary undersecretary in the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. Since 25 September 2010 she has chaired the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU partyDanke für 96,9 % zu meiner Wahl als Landesvorsitzende! dated 25 September 2010 and, since March 2011, the CDU group in the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state parliament. Since 15 November 2010 she has been on the CDU's national Präsidium (executive committee) and on 4 December 2012 she was elected as one of the Deputy Federal Chairpeople of the CDU.
Early life and education Klöckner was born on 16 December 1972 in the German spa town of Bad Kreuznach. She grew up in Guldental as the youngest child of a vintner's family. After taking her Abitur in 1992 at the Gymnasium an der Stadtmauer grammar school in Bad Kreuznach, Klöckner studied for a degree in political science, Catholic theology and education, passing her first Staatsexamen in 1998 in Social Studies and Religion and receiving her Master of Arts (MA) at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
Professional career After her intermediate examination, Klöckner worked, with special permission, from 1994 to 1998 as a religious education teacher at a primary school in Wiesbaden, and then began her practical training as a journalist. In 1994 she was chosen as the "Wine Queen of the Nahe valley" () and, in 1995, as the German Wine Queen.deutscheweinkoenigin.de: Bildergalerie der Majestäten – Julia Klöckner, 47. Deutsche Weinkönigin Sven Astheimer: „Zwischen Glamour und Gelände“, in: FAZ.net, 17 November 2009 (current version of a text dated 3 January 2009 in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung) In this capacity, she presented Pope John Paul II with a bottle of Riesling.
From 1998 to 2002, Klöckner worked in the department of regional culture at SWR television in Mainz as a freelancer and, from 2000 to 2002, she was editor of the magazine, weinwelt ("Wine World"). Julia Klöckner] at www.cdu.de. Retrieved 31 October 2013. From 2001 to 2009, she was chief editor of Sommelier magazine published by Meininger Verlag.
Political career
Early beginnings In 1996, Klöckner joined the Junge Union (JU), the Frauen Union (FU, the German "Women's Union"), the Christian Democratic Union party, the Europa Union and the Young European Federalists. In 2001 she became a member of the JU's local board in Bad Kreuznach, an office she held until 2007. In the same year she also became a member of the local (county-level) CDU board in Bad Kreuznach. In 2002, Klöckner became a member of the Regional Committee on Security Policy and the Armed Forcesjuliawaehlen.de: Klöckners Kurier (pdf: 324 kB) and the JU Regional Executive of Rhineland-Palatinate, where she stayed until 2007.
Member of the Bundestag, 2002–2011
First term, 2002–2005
In October 2002, following the German federal election that year, Klöckner entered the German parliament, the Bundestag, via the Rhineland-Palatinate list of state candidates, having scored 7% less than her SPD rival Fritz-Rudolf Körper in the first round of voting.
On 14 November 2002 Klöckner was elected as one of the secretaries of the Bundestag's plenary sessions.bundestag.de: Deutscher Bundestag Stenografischer Bericht 10. Sitzung Berlin, Thu 14 Nov 2002 (pdf: 883 kB)bundestag.de: Wahlvorschlag für die Wahl der Schriftführer gemäß § 3 der Geschäftsordnung (pdf: 178 kB) In addition she joined the board of trustees of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.bpb.de: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Jahresbericht 2002/2003 (PDF) Later she became a member of the Committee for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. and alternate member of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. In 2003 she joined the commission of inquiry into "Ethics and Rights in Modern Medicine" and was a member of its sub-groups: "Ethics in Bioscientific and Medical Research" and "Transplantation Medicine".Deutscher Bundestag Enquete-Kommission Ethik Und Recht der Modernen Medizin (PDF) She also founded a parliamentary wine forumreisetravel.eu: Das Parlamentarische Weinforum and belonged to the all-party discussion group on hospice and palliative care.
Klöckner became a member of the "Young Group" (Junge Gruppe) of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, where she served as deputy chairwoman.pressrelations.de: Krings ist neuer Sprecher der Jungen Gruppe
Second term, 2005–2009
In the federal elections in 2005 Klöckner secured the constituency of Kreuznach for the CDU for the first time in around 50 years with 43.0% of voters placing her first. On 15 December 2005 she was re-elected as secretary to the Bundestag.
On 24 January 2006 Klöckner was elected to the board of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. She was a full member of the committee for consumer Protection and an alternate member of the Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety. On 2 June 2006 she also joined the Parliamentary Advisory Board for Sustainable Development. In addition, she served as deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with Belgium and Luxembourg.
On 23 October 2007 Klöckner was unanimously voted as deputy chairwoman and thus as chairwoman of the working group for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. She was part of this working group until 2009.
In July 2008 Klöckner began a two-year stint as chairwoman of the newly constituted consumer advisory body of Schufa established to represent the interests of consumer protection.
In the 2009 federal elections Klöckner was confirmed as the directly elected member of parliament for the constituency of Kreuznach/Birkenfeld with 47.0% of first votes and an 18% lead over her SPD rival.Allgemeine Zeitung: Julia Klöckner (CDU) verteidigt Direktmandat im Wahlkreis Bad Kreuznach In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), she was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on environment, agriculture and consumer protection policies, led by Ilse Aigner and Michael Kauch.
After the constitution of the Rhineland-Palatinate parliament on 18 May 2011, Klöckner resigned her seat in the Bundestag on 27 May 2011.Julia Klöckner hat am 27. Mai 2011 im Büro von Bundestagspräsident Lammert ihre Entlassungsurkunde unterzeichnet. Photograph of Klöckner handing her resignation to Bundestag President, Lammert. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
Parliamentary State Secretary On 29 October 2009, Klöckner was appointed as a Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture under Minister Ilse Aigner. In February 2011 she resigned from this office in order to run the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate. Her successor in this office is Peter Bleser (CDU).
State politics in Rhineland-Palatinate
Within the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU, Klöckner moved up to the party's state executive committee in 2003. On 13 June 2004 Julia Klöckner was elected to the county council (Kreistag) of Bad Kreuznach with 42,888 votes, the highest number of votes of the 50 CDU candidates.cdu-kv-badkreuznach.de: Kreistagswahlergebnis 2004 In the next council elections on 7 June 2009 she was again elected with the most votes (this time 46,759 votes).Allgemeine Zeitung: Die neuen Kreistagsmitglieder – STATISTIK Julia Klöckner ist die Häufelköniginkreisbadkreuznach.de:
On 8 July 2006 Klöckner was elected as Deputy State Chairwoman of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU with 91.5% of the vote on the CDU Party's 59th Regional Day.ju-rlp.de: Black Das Magaazine der Jungen Union Rheinland-Pfalz 09/10 • 3. Jahrgang • Sep./Okt. 2006 (PDF)
On 17 November 2009, Klöckner was proposed by the CDU chairman for Rhineland-Palatinate, Christian Baldauf, as the lead candidate for the 2011 state elections.faz.net: Die gut vernetzte Weinkönigin, retrieved 17 November 2009 On 17 April 2010 she was duly elected as the CDU's front runner at the CDU state party conference in Bingen am Rhein with 400 out of 402 votes cast (99.5%).Allgemeine Zeitung: Klöckner wird Spitzenkandidatin mit Traumergebnis – Baldauf gibt CDU-Vorsitz ab On 25 September 2010 at the state party conference in Mainz, she was elected as leader of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU with 96.9% of the vote.Allgemeine Zeitung: Julia Klöckner in Mainz zur CDU-Landeschefin gewählt – Merkels Watschn für BeckFAZ.NET: Julia Klöckner neue CDU-Landesvorsitzende dated 26 September 2010 On 4 December 2010 she achieved first place in the state list for the 2011 elections at the party conference of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU Association in Ramstein-Miesenbach, gaining 99.6% of the votes.Allgemeine Zeitung: Rheinland-Pfalz: CDU wählt Klöckner mit Traumergebnis – Grüne: Ziel zweistellig
In the state elections on 27 March 2011, voters gave Klöckner the direct mandate for the constituency of Bad Kreuznach with 44.4% of the votes.wahlen.rlp.de: Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz - Endgültiges Ergebnis Landtagswahl 2011 Wahlkreis Bad Kreuznach After scoring their lowest result in the 2006 elections with only 32.8% of the vote, the CDU's performance state level was 2.5% higher than the national trend and just 0.5% behind the SDP, who suffered a historic loss of 9.9% of the vote.
Following the state elections, Klöckner was unanimously elected as the CDU's party leader in the Rhineland-Palatinate parliament on 30 March 2011.
In the 2016 state elections, Klöckner again ran for the office of Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate. With the European migrant crisis emerging as the dominating campaign issue, Klöckner responded by trying to harden her line on migrants while carefully avoiding any whiff of disloyalty to Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a joint statement with CDU Baden-Württemberg leading candidate Guido Wolf Klöckner proposed in February 2016 flexible daily quotas for refugee inflows into Germany, which was a step beyond Merkel's "open-doors" policy but not so far as the CSU, the CDU's Bavaria-based sister party, which backed fixed annual limits. No one should be allowed to enter Germany without a reason for asylum or a protection status. She eventually lost against incumbent Malu Dreyer.
Role in national politics In 2003, Klöckner was elected to the federal board of the Frauen Union, a national organization for CDU women. In addition she became a deputy member in the board of the European People's Party. On 14 May 2007 she became the deputy chairwoman of the CDU Commission on the "Preservation of the Creation: Climatic, Environmental and Consumer Protection", where she led the Sub-Commission on Consumer Protection.
At the 23rd national CDU party conference on 15 November 2010, Klöckner became a member of the CDU Präsidium or steering committee with 94.43% of the votes, the highest number of votes out of all 40 candidates.karlsruhe2010.cdu.de: Elections at the 23rd party conference of the CDU in Germany On 4 December 2012 she was elected as one of five deputy chairpersons of the national CDU party with 92.92% of the votes (once again the best result), serving alongside Volker Bouffier, Armin Laschet, Thomas Strobl and Ursula von der Leyen.