Saskia Esken

Saskia Christina Esken (née Hofer; born 28 August 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as co-leader of the party from her election in December 2019 (alongside Norbert Walter-Borjans) and re-election in December 2021 (alongside Lars Klingbeil) until 2025. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013 and has worked in the IT sector in the early 1990s.

Early life and career

Esken was born 1961 in Stuttgart. She graduated from the Johannes Kepler Gymnasium in Weil der Stadt in 1980 or 1981 She was the first in her family to attend university, but dropped out of the University of Stuttgart after four semesters of German studies and politics. From then on, Esken toured southern Germany as a street musician with her guitar, slept in her car, waited tables in pubs and delivered parcels, was a chauffeur and typist at the University of Stuttgart. She also worked as a production assistant. Esken completed her dual training as a state-certified computer scientist at the vocational college for computer science at the Akademie für Datenverarbeitung Böblingen (Böblingen Academy for Data Processing) in 1990. On the other hand, she writes that she completed this in 1991. She worked in software development until she ended her professional career after the birth of her first child in 1994. In 1994, 1996 and 1999, Esken and her husband Roland Esken became parents to Jana, Lena and Sebastian. She came to education policy via the voluntary parents' association and was deputy chair of the Baden-Württemberg state parents' council from 2012 to 2014. According to a report by the ARD magazine "Kontraste", the newly composed board of directors at the time dismissed the office manager after her email account was searched without consent. In response to an extensive "Kontraste" inquiry to Esken about the matter,