Kristin Alheit

Kristin Alheit (2013)

Kristin Alheit (born September 23, 1967 in Kassel ) is a German politician ( SPD ) and was Minister for Social Affairs, Health, Science and Equality in Schleswig-Holstein from 2012 to 2017 . Since October 2017 she has been the managing director of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband in Hamburg. She manages the association's business and is responsible for representing the association in and out of court.

Life

Kristin Alheit was born in 1967 in Kassel as the daughter of the educationalist Peter Alheit and the social pedagogue Marianne Päthke. She lived there with her parents until 1980 and then moved to Bremen , as her father was appointed professor at the University of Bremen . In 1986 she graduated from high school and began studying law in Bremen and at the Goethe University in Frankfurt . In addition to her studies, she was active in various committees (AStA at the University of Frankfurt am Main).

After completing her studies, she joined a notary and law firm in Frankfurt as a lawyer.

Kristin Alheit married and moved to her husband in Hamburg in 1998 . In the same year she became a mother. She worked as a research assistant and had worked in the Hamburg administration since 2000. Their second son was born in early 2006. As a consultant for the Hamburg tax authorities, she was committed to extensive administrative modernization in the Elbe metropolis from 2004 to 2008.

Political career

Kristin Alheit joined the SPD in 1989 and won her first local political mandate in 1995: parallel to her legal work, she moved into the city parliament of Kronberg im Taunus as a member of the SPD . In 1997 she became head of department in the ministerial office of the Hessian finance minister Karl Starzacher .

During her time in Hamburg she was an elected citizen in the Altona district assembly . In 2008 she ran for the SPD as mayor of Pinneberg and was elected.

Torsten Albig made her Minister of Social Affairs in his cabinet in 2012 . The CDU politician Klaus Seyfert represented Alheit as mayor until the new election on November 11, 2012, when the non-party candidate Urte Steinberg was chosen as successor with 57.46 percent in the first ballot. In response to criticism that her assumption of office in Kiel was like "escaping" from the office of Mayor of Pinneberg, she told the Hamburger Abendblatt: Even if you don't agree with all of the things I have pushed, it is good news for the city if the mayor is appointed to such an office. In addition, Pinneberg can get a direct and short line to the state government through me. ...

engagement

Alheit is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Reading Foundation .

Positions

As Minister Kristin Alheit was responsible for the social security systems, health and care policy, protection and well-being of children and adolescents, the financial and social conditions for families, care of the elderly and people with physical or mental disabilities. Since June 12, 2012, due to the coalition agreement with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the tasks of daycare centers and gender equality policy have also been part of the Ministry.

Shortly after taking office, Minister Alheit spoke out against the introduction of a childcare allowance. In March 2013 the cabinet of Prime Minister Torsten Albig decided on a Federal Council initiative together with Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate against the failed family policy of the federal government. The majority of the eight countries in which the SPD, the Greens and the Left form the government voted in the Federal Council on March 22, 2013 for the initiative and called for the law to be repealed and the planned performance to be reversed.

Minister Alheit, on the other hand, was committed to the rapid expansion of childcare and a better work-life balance. Together with the Federal Employment Agency, it therefore also supports company kindergartens. For this reason, a “company childcare advice center” was created in the Ministry of Social Affairs. There, entrepreneurs receive information about funding opportunities and innovative concepts for company childcare.

With the municipalities, Minister Alheit negotiated a compromise for the implementation of the legal right to a daycare place for children under three. In doing so, she prevented a wave of lawsuits from the municipalities. The compromise agreed in December between the municipalities and the state now provides for a "flat-rate fee" of 10,000 euros. Some municipalities had significantly higher claims and had already filed lawsuits with the administrative court. At the end of 2014, the amount of the flat rate will now be reviewed. Due to her experience in local politics, Minister Alheit was also able to negotiate a compromise with regard to the integration assistance for people with disabilities and, in the new state framework plan, dampened the cost increases for one of the largest single items in the state budget.

literature

Kristin Alheit , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 23/2013 from June 4, 2013, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)