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Sahra WagenknechtGerman politician, Doctor of Economics
Date of Birth: 16.07.1969
Country:  Germany |
Content:
Early Life
Sarah Wagenknecht was born in Jena, East Germany, on July 16, 1969. Her mother was German, while her Iranian father was studying in West Berlin and could only visit her mother, who lived in the GDR, on one-day visas. Wagenknecht's mother worked for a state-owned organization. She grew up with her grandparents in a village near Jena but moved to East Berlin with her mother in 1976 to attend school.
Political Activism
As a teenager, Wagenknecht joined the Free German Youth organization. However, she faced scrutiny for refusing to eat during mandatory military training, which was interpreted as a hunger strike. Despite this, she joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1989 to "reform the system from within."
Education
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wagenknecht studied philosophy and German literature at the University of Jena and Humboldt University of Berlin. She later transferred to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where she graduated with a master's degree in 1996. Her thesis on Karl Marx's interpretation of Hegel was published as a book. In 2012, she earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Jena.
Political Career
Wagenknecht joined the SED in 1989. After the SED transformed into the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), she joined its orthodox Marxist faction. She ran unsuccessfully for the PDS in the 1998 federal election and was elected to the European Parliament in 1999. In 2007, the PDS merged with the Labor and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative party to form the Left Party. Wagenknecht was elected vice-chair of the Left Party in 2010 and first vice-chair in 2011. She has been a vocal critic of capitalism and supports left-wing governments in Latin America.
Personal Life
Wagenknecht married journalist and filmmaker Ralph Thomas Niemeyer in 1997. In 2011, she announced that she was in a relationship with former SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine. They married in 2015 after divorcing their previous spouses.
