Petra Pau

Petra Pau (born 9 August 1963) is a member of The Left in the German parliament, the Bundestag. First elected in 1998, from 2002 to 2005 she was one of just two party representatives, having been directly elected as the representative of Berlin Marzahn – Hellersdorf, a working-class area of east Berlin. She is currently one of the vice presidents of the Bundestag and belongs to the reform-oriented members of her party, actively supporting parliamentary representative democracy.

Pau's first involvement in politics came in 1983 when she joined the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the governing party of East Germany. After German reunification, the SED became the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and she was elected as a PDS member to the Borough Assembly of Hellersdorf in Eastern Berlin in October 1990. She became district Chairwoman of the PDS branch in Hellersdorf in October 1991 and was elected Chairwoman of the PDS in Berlin in October 1992, serving as national Deputy Chairwoman from 2000 until 2002.

She was elected to the Berlin parliament in 1995 and remained a member until 1998 when she was elected to the Bundestag for the Berlin Mitte - Prenzlauer Berg constituency. Controversial boundary changes abolished this constituency and for the 2002 election, she moved to Marzahn-Hellersdorf, regarded as a safe seat for the PDS. She was elected for that constituency in 2002 and re-elected at the subsequent elections in 2005, 2009 and 2013.

She used to be a leader of the East German pioneers and an art teacher.

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