History's Changing Tides?

Meet Germany's first Jewish minister since WWII

The new coalition is set to appoint Karin Prien as its next Education Minister, in a historic first since WWII.

Avi Woolf

04/28/2025, 18:43

1 min read

Karin Prien, Germany's next Education Minister. — Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0

Karin Prien, a Jewish politician who hails from the Netherlands, is set to become Germany's first Jewish minister since the Nazi regime took over Germany in 1933, according to a report today (Monday) in the NL Times.

According to the Times, Prien's Jewish grandparents fled Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, seeking refuge in the Netherlands. She herself moved to Germany in the early 1990s, where she has since built a successful political career.

Prien has reportedly been a member of the CDU since 1981 and has a notable history of service in education - as she previously served as the Minister of Education in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. In her new role, she aims to address the teacher shortage in Germany and advocate for higher salaries for educators.

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