A parliamentarian from Hamburg with Turkish roots: Aydan Özoğuz

Aydan Özoğuz (Social Democratic Party of Germany – SPD) was elected as a Vice-President of the German Bundestag on 26 October 2021. The parliamentarian from Hamburg has been a Member of the Bundestag since 2009. The 54-year-old represents the Hamburg-Wandsbek constituency and was directly elected with 38.7 per cent of the first votes in her constituency in the Bundestag election on 26 September 2021.

Aydan Özoğuz was born to Turkish parents in Hamburg on 31 May 1967. After obtaining her Abitur (higher-education entrance qualification) in 1986, she studied English language and literature in Hamburg, with minors in Spanish and business administration, and graduated with a Magister Artium degree. After being elected to the Hamburg Parliament in 2001, Aydan Özoğuz joined the SPD in 2004 and became the spokeswoman on integration and migration for the SPD parliamentary group.

Her work in the Hamburg Parliament, of which she was a Member until 2008, focused on social affairs, internal affairs, youth, and petitions/hardship cases. She was a deputy chairwoman of the SPD from 2011 to 2017, and served as Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor and Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration from 2013 to 2018. She has been a member of the SPD party presidium and executive since December 2017.