Josef Winkler

Josef Philip Winkler (born April 5, 1974 in Koblenz) is a German politician and member of the German Green Party "Bündnis 90/Die Grünen". He has been a member of the Deutscher Bundestag, the German Parliament, since 2002.

Family

Winkler's mother, Chinnamma, was born in the Indian state of Kerala. She is married to Martin Winkler, a German born in Saarland. Both live in Bad Ems.

Professional career

Winkler did his Abitur in 1993 at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Bad Ems, his hometown. After this he started a schooling as a nurse in orthopaedics and geriatric psychiatry which he ended in 1997 with a professional degree.

Political career

Winkler became a member of the German Green Party in 1990, at the age of 16 while still at school. One year later, he became spokesman of the party's local chapter for two years. From 1994 till 1999 Winkler was deputy and chairman of his faction in Bad Ems' city council. He then went on to be a member and chairman of this faction on the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis district council until 2003. Since 2001, Winkler has been a member of the regional association's executive board of his party in Rhineland-Palatinate, called "Parteirat".

Since 2002, Josef Winkler has been a member of the German Bundestag. As spokesman for church policy and the interreligious dialogue of his parliamentary faction, he is the leader of his faction's work group for religion policy. He is also the spokesman for Immigration policy and from 2002 till 2005 he was spokesman for democratic development. He is a member in the Interior Committee and the Committee on Petitions. Since 2003, Winkler has been a member in the German delegation for the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

External links

* [http://www.josef-winkler.de/ josef-winkler.de] (German)
* [http://www.bundestag.de/mdb/bio/W/winkljo0.html biography site at bundestag.de] (German)

References