Cornelia Pieper

Cornelia Pieper was born in Halle/Saale on 4 February 1959 and is married with one son. After receiving her Abitur in Halle, she studied Applied and Theoretical Linguistics in Leipzig and Warsaw and received a degree as a Certified Translator/Interpreter for Polish and Russian in 1982.

She worked as an interpreter in the tourism and cultural sector until 1985 after which she was employed in the IT department at a television production company in Halle. From 1995 to 1996 she was managing director of the German Humanist Association in Berlin, and since mid-1996, has worked as a freelance translator. She was also the co-founder, first chairwoman and is now a member of the board of trustees of the Erhard Hübener Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt.

In 1990 Pieper became a member of the state executive board of the FDP (Free Democratic Party) in Saxony-Anhalt, and in 1995 became state chairwoman and deputy district chairwoman in Halle. In 1993 she was appointed to the federal executive board of the FDP, serving between 1997 and May 2001 as federal deputy chairwoman and between 2001 and 2005 as secretary general of the FDP. In 2005 she reassumed her position as federal deputy chairwoman of the FDP. She also served as federal deputy chairwoman of the Liberale Frauen e.V. from 1990 to 1994, parliamentary representative in Saxony-Anhalt from April to October 2002, vice-president of the state parliament from 1990 to 1994 and chairwoman of the FDP state parliamentary group from April to October 2002.

Pieper served as a member of the Bundestag from 1999 to May 2002 and again from October 2002 to present. Between October 1997 and June 2001 she served as deputy chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group and was the FDP spokesperson on research policy and spokesperson for the Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment. She also served as chairwoman on the same committee from February to October 2005 and then as deputy chairwoman from November 2005 to October 2009. In November 2009 Pieper became the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office.