Katja Kipping is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. The daughter of a teacher and an economist, she went to school from 1984 to 1996, then she made her Abitur

Abitur

Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

 ('A-levels') at a gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 in Dresden until 1997. She then spent time in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, before returning and becoming, in 1998, a member of the then Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), now Left Party

Left Party (Germany)

The Party of Democratic Socialism was a democratic socialist political party active in Germany from 1989 to 2007. It was the legal successor to the Socialist Unity Party , which ruled the German Democratic Republic until 1990. From 1990 through to 2005, the PDS had been seen as the left-wing...

.

Political life

She was a town councillor in Dresden from 1999 until 2003, and from September 1999 to 2004 she was a delegate in the Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 state parliament and spokeswoman for traffic and energy policy. After July 2003 she was the deputy chairman of the PDS and from 2005 onwards she has been a Member of the Bundestag (the German parliament) for the Left Party. She is a proponent of a guaranteed minimum income

Guaranteed minimum income

Guaranteed minimum income is a system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour...

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External links

List of Left Party deputies in the Bundestag Kipping's Homepage in German