Party roles

Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Union
In office 15 November 2010 – 22 November 2019 Serving with Volker Bouffier, Julia Klöckner, Armin Laschet, Thomas Strobl
Leader	Angela Merkel Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Preceded by	Christian Wulff
Succeeded by	Silvia Breher

Lower Saxony Cabinet

Minister of Social Affairs, Women and Families and Health
In office 4 March 2003 – 22 November 2005
Minister-President	Christian Wulff
Preceded by	Gitta Trauernicht
Succeeded by	Mechthild Ross-Luttmann

Parliamentary constituencies

Member of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony
In office 27 October 2009 – 31 July 2019
Preceded by	multi-member district
Succeeded by	Ingrid Pahlmann
Constituency	Christian Democratic Union List
Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony for Lehrte
In office 4 March 2003 – 7 December 2005
Preceded by	Gerhard Schröder (1998)
Succeeded by	Dorothee Prüssner

Personal details

Born

Ursula Gertrud Albrecht

8 October 1958 (age 66)
Ixelles, Belgium

Nationality

German

Political party

Christian Democratic Union (since 1990)

Other political
affiliations

European People's Party

Spouses

Heiko von der Leyen

(m. 1986)

Children

Parent

Ernst Albrecht (father)

Relatives

Hans-Holger Albrecht (brother)
Carl Albrecht
(grandfather)

Alma mater

University of Göttingen
London School of Economics
Hannover Medical School (MD, MPH)

Occupation

Politician
Physician
Research fellow

Signature

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (born 8 October 1958) is a German politician. She is currently the President of the European Commission, a very important role in the European Union. She started this job in 2019. Before that, she worked in the German government for many years, holding different minister positions. Her last job in Germany was the federal minister of defence. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party. In 2024, she was chosen to lead the campaign for the European Parliament elections and was re-elected to head the European Commission.

Her Family and Early Life
Her Education and Career Journey
Her Political Career
Her Political Ideas
Awards and Recognition
Images for kids
See also

Her Family and Early Life

Von der Leyen's family coat of arms

Ursula von der Leyen was born in 1958 in Ixelles, Belgium. She lived there until she was 13 years old. Her family called her "Röschen," which means "little rose."

Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was one of the first people to work for the European Commission when it was created in 1958. He was a high-ranking official. Ursula went to the European School in Brussels until she was 13.

In 1971, her family moved to Germany. Her father became a state prime minister (called Minister President) in the German state of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990.

In 1986, Ursula married Heiko von der Leyen, who is a doctor and a professor. They have seven children, born between 1987 and 1999. She is a native speaker of German and French, and she also speaks English very well. She lives with her family on a farm in Germany where they have horses. She enjoys horse riding.

Her Education and Career Journey

In 1977, Ursula von der Leyen started studying economics at the University of Göttingen. In 1978, she moved to London and lived there secretly for over a year. This was because a dangerous group in Germany was planning to kidnap her since her father was a well-known politician. She used the name Rose Ladson to stay safe and studied at the London School of Economics. She said this time in London gave her a lot of freedom.

She returned to Germany in 1979. In 1980, she changed her studies to medicine at the Hannover Medical School. She became a doctor in 1987, specializing in women's health. From 1988 to 1992, she worked as a doctor. In 1991, she earned her medical doctorate degree.

After having twins, she lived in California, USA, from 1992 to 1996, while her husband worked at Stanford University. When she came back to Germany in 1996, she continued her studies. From 1998 to 2002, she taught at the Hannover Medical School. In 2001, she earned a Master of Public Health degree.

Her Political Career

Ursula von der Leyen joined the CDU party in 1990. She started working in local politics in Germany in 1996. From 2003 to 2005, she was a minister in the government of the state of Lower Saxony.

In 2005, she joined the German federal government, which is the national government. She held several important jobs in Angela Merkel's cabinet (the group of top ministers):

From 2005 to 2009: Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
From 2009 to 2013: Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
From 2013 to 2019: Minister of Defence. She was the first woman to ever hold this position in Germany.

She was a deputy leader of the CDU party from 2010 to 2019.

On 2 July 2019, she was chosen to be the candidate for President of the European Commission. This is the leader of the main executive body of the European Union. She was elected by the European Parliament on 16 July and started her job on 1 December. She is the first woman to hold this very important position. In 2022 and 2023, Forbes magazine named her the most powerful woman in the world.

Her Political Ideas

Supporting Families and Parents

When Ursula von der Leyen became the Minister for Family Affairs in 2005, she worked to create more childcare options across Germany. She also introduced a paid parental leave program called Elternzeit. This program included two extra months of leave specifically for fathers, encouraging them to spend more time with their newborns.

Encouraging Women in Leadership

In 2013, von der Leyen pushed for a law to make sure more women were on the boards of companies in Germany. She wanted company boards to have at least 20% women by 2018, and 40% by 2023.

Germany's Role in the World

Von der Leyen believes Germany should play a more active role in global affairs. For example, in 2014, Germany decided to send weapons to security forces in Iraq. This was a new step for Germany, as it usually avoided sending weapons to conflict areas.

Working Together in Europe

Manfred Weber, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and von der Leyen in April 2019

Ursula von der Leyen has often spoken about her dream of a "united states of Europe." She imagines a Europe where countries work very closely together on important issues like money, taxes, and the economy, similar to how states work together in countries like Switzerland, Germany, or the USA.

She believes that European countries should work towards having a combined military force in the long term. She hopes that future generations will see a "United States of Europe." In 2015, she worked with defence ministers from France and Poland to improve cooperation between their countries in crisis areas.

Von der Leyen with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, 3 November 2022

After the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union (known as Brexit) in 2016, she said that the UK had sometimes slowed down efforts for European countries to work together on security. She called Brexit "a burst bubble of hollow promises."

Protecting the Environment

Ursula von der Leyen sees stopping climate change as a top priority. She supports new rules and projects that help the environment, like the European Green Deal. She has also expressed concerns about cheaper electric cars from China, saying their prices are kept low by government support.

Awards and Recognition

International Honours

Grand Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania (Lithuania, 2017)
Commander of the National Order of Mali (Mali, 2016)
Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 1st class (Ukraine, 2022)

Honorary Degrees

2023 – Honorary Doctorate, Université Toulouse Capitole
2022 – Honorary Doctorate, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Other Awards

Forbes' list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women:
- Position 4 (2019, 2020)
- Position 1 (2022, 2023, 2024)
2020 – Global Citizen Prize for World Leader
2022 – BBC 100 Women
2022 – Global Goalkeeper Award, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Images for kids

2005 campaign poster featuring von der Leyen
Ursula von der Leyen at a horse show in Hagen in Osnabrück, Germany, in 2013
Von der Leyen with German soldiers during a visit to the Field Marshal Rommel Barracks, Augustdorf (2014)
Chuck Hagel and Ursula von der Leyen at the September 2014 NATO summit in Newport, Wales
Von der Leyen and General Bekir Ercan Van (far left), the commander of Incirlik Air Base
Von der Leyen during the MSC 2017
Ursula von der Leyen with US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter (2015 in Berlin)
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen after being received by Vice Admiral AR Karve, Chief of Staff, Western Naval Command during her visit to India
Ursula von der Leyen addressing the European Parliament on 16 July 2019
Von der Leyen with her proposed College of Commissioners on 19 November 2019
Von der Leyen delivering her first State of the European Union address on 16 September 2020
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and von der Leyen meeting in Helsinki on 4 October 2021
Von der Leyen speaking at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow
Von der Leyen with US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders on special NATO meeting, 24 March 2022
Von der Leyen with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other G7 leaders at the 48th G7 summit in Germany, 26 June 2022
Von der Leyen with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in Brussels, 3 November 2022
Von der Leyen with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv, 15 September 2022
Von der Leyen with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, 18 July 2022
Von der Leyen with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, 12 July 2023
Von der Leyen with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders at the International Conference on Development and Migration in Rome, 23 July 2023
Von der Leyen with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in Cairo, 18 November 2023
von der Leyen with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in Kyiv, 24 February 2024
President von der Leyen with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, New Delhi on 25 April 2022
Demonstration on 17 April 2009 against internet censorship
Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, 6 April 2023
Von der Leyen with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Brussels, January 2023