Ulla Schmidt: Vice-President of the Bundestag © DBT/Melde

Ulla Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was elected as Vice-President of the German Bundestag on 22 October 2013. She was born on 13 June 1949 in Aachen and has one daughter. Schmidt studied in Aachen and at the Distance Learning University Hagen before working as a teacher specialising in special needs education and the rehabilitation of children with learning difficulties and behavioural issues. She was elected the Member of the German Bundestag representing Aachen I constituency via the SPD party list for North Rhine-Westphalia in the first elections in reunified Germany on 2 December 1990.

Deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group

Schmidt joined the SPD in 1983. She served as a member of the executive committee for the Aachen subdistrict branch of the SPD and the party council, and until 1992 was a city councillor for Aachen. From 1991 to 1998, Schmidt was chairwoman of the working group set up by the SPD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag on the equality of men and women and spokeswoman of the Family Policy in the 21st Century project group. She was also a member of the executive committee of the SPD parliamentary group from 1991.

From November 1998 to January 2001 she was deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group with responsibility for labour and social affairs, women, families and senior citizens.

Long tenure as health minister

Schmidt was appointed Federal Minister of Health in January 2001 and remained in office for over eight years until October 2009, longer than any of her predecessors. During the electoral term of 2002 to 2005, her ministry was called the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security.

Since February 2010, Schmidt has been a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and deputy chairwoman of the German delegation to that assembly. At the same time she became a member of the Subcommittee on Cultural and Education Policy Abroad of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and member of the Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs. She has been chairwoman of Lebenshilfe, the association for people with mental disability, their families, experts and friends, since September 2012.