The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs will open its spring 2013 public policy lectures by welcoming Dr. Ursula von der Leyen, the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, for a public talk titled, "Europe's Steps Out of the Crisis." The discussion will be held on Monday, February 11, 2013, at 4:30 p.m., Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.  The lecture is co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School, the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance, and the European Union Program at Princeton.  

Ursula von der Leyen started her political activities in 1990 when she became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany. Since 1999, she has been active in the CDU working group of medical doctors in Lower Saxony. From 2001 to 2004 she held various political offices at the municipal level in the Hannover region and in 2003 she became a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament. In the same year she was appointed State Minister of Social Affairs, Women, Family Affairs and Health. In 2005 Ursula von der Leyen started her career in federal politics as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Since 2009 she has been a member of the German Bundestag and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. After her election as member of the CDU Executive Committee she was elected as party vice chairwoman in 2010.

Minister von der Leyen studied economics at the University of Göttingen, the University of Münster and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1980 she took up medical studies at the Hannover Medical School (MHH).

After obtaining her license to practice medicine, she worked at the MHH gynecological hospital where she obtained her doctorate in 1991. After several years in the United States, Dr. von der Leyen and her family returned to Germany in 1996.  From 1998 to 2002 she worked as a research assistant at the department of epidemiology, social medicine and health system research at Hannover Medical School where she completed her master’s degree in public health in 2001.

The event will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s web media site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.