Katja Suding, born in 1975 in Vechta, Germany, worked for many years as a freelance communications consultant after studying communications and political science before entering politics from one day to the next as a career changer in 2011. How did it come about?

At the end of 2010, the government alliance in Hamburg collapsed and she applied to be the FDP’s top candidate for the early elections. Not only does she get this post, but she also makes a significant contribution to her party’s electoral success in the Hamburg parliamentary elections in February 2011, and pulls her party out of a polling slump. Thanks to its new top candidate, the FDP finally returns to Hamburg’s parliament after seven long years of extra-parliamentary opposition. This marks the start of her political career.

Katja Suding was a member of Hamburg’s parliament and chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group from 2011 to 2017, as well as state chairwoman of the FDP Hamburg from 2014 to 2021. She was also deputy federal chairwoman of her party from 2015 to 2021. What particularly drives her politically in these years is educational justice. She is fighting to make the educational success of children more independent of parental home and background.

Then, in 2017, the next career highlight: Katja Suding moves into the German Bundestag, where she is deputy leader of the FDP parliamentary group. She seems to have reached her goal.

But then comes the shock: In 2021, Katja Suding unexpectedly ends her successful political career, without her reputation having been damaged by scandals beforehand. Just as she found her way into politics, she also arranged her exit: in a self-determined way.

Katja Suding will publish her first book with Herder in March 2021. The author, mother of two grown-up children, lives in Hamburg.

 

In the herCAREER Podcast
Reißleine – Wie ich mich selbst verlor – und wiederfand

Interviewed by herCAREER
„In die Politik zu gehen, hatte Nebenwirkungen für mich“