Josef Winkler (politician)

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. Josef Winkler was born in Koblenz.

Professional career

Winkler did his Abitur in 1993 at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Bad Ems, his home town. After this he started a schooling as a male 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. From 2001 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2013, Winkler has been a member of the state's association's executive board of his party in Rhineland-Palatinate, called "Parteirat". He is chairing the green group in the municipal council of the Rhine-Lahn-District since 2014.

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 from 2005–2009, he has been 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 has been member of the Committee on Petitions from 2002-2009. Since 2003, Winkler has been a member in the German delegation for the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Winkler was elected member of the Executive Committee of the Interparliamentary Union from 2012 to 2013.

Winkler was Chairman of the Indo-German parliamentary friendship Group of the German Bundestag (National Parliament) and member of the advisory board of the Hon. Prime Minister of India and the Hon. Federal Chancellor of Germany for Indo-German relations till 2013. Winkler is the third Member of the Green Party to be elected as member of the Central Committee of the German Catholics (since 2008). Winkler has been elected as chairman for the committee for fundamental political questions of the Central Committee of the German Catholics in 2009. He is a member of the Council of Catholics in his home diocese (Limburg). He is a member of the advisory board of the catholic academy of the archdiocese of Berlin. He is a member of the board of the foundation of the German catholic women's association.

Winkler got elected for a third term in parliament in the general elections of September 27, 2009. He got promoted as Vice-Chairman of his parliamentary caucus (Alliance 90/ The Greens) following his re-election. He was shadowing the following federal ministries: Interior Affairs, Homeland Security, Justice, Petitions, Integration and Migration, Sports. In addition he is a speaker for Church policy and inter-religious dialogue and speaker for refugees affairs of his parliamentary group. In the Elections of 2013 he was not reelected.

International Activities

Winkler has travelled widely abroad for the German parliament. He was part of delegations of Federal Chancellors Dr. Schröder and Dr. Merkel to India and Foreign Minister Fischer to India and Sri Lanka and of Foreign Minister Dr. Westerwelle to South-America. As Chairman of the Indo-German and the German-South-Asian parliamentary friendship group he chaired all-party delegations of MPs to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He also chaired the first official delegation of the German parliament to Bhutan.

As Member of the German delegation to the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) since 2003 he took part in the following Assemblies : 108. Assembly in Santiago de Chile (2003), 109. Assembly in Geneva (2003), 110. Assembly in Mexiko City (2004), 111. Assembly in Geneva (2004), 112. Assembly in Manila (2005), 115. Assembly in Geneva (2006), 116. Assembly in Nusa Dua, Indonesia (2007), 118. Assembly in Cape Town (2008), 120. Assembly in Addis Abbeba, Ethiopia (2009), 121. Assembly in Geneva (2009), 122. Assembly in Bangkok (2010), 123. Assembly in Geneva (2010), 125. Assembly in Bern (2011), 126. Assembly in Kampala, Uganda (2012), 127. Assembly in Quebec City, Canada (2012), 128. Assembly in Quito, Ecuador (2013), 129. Assembly in Geneva (2013)and special assemblies in New York (2008) and in Ulan Bator, Mongolia (2003). The delegation of the 18. German Bundestag (National Parliament) under the chairmanship of the President of the Bundestag Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert has named Josef Winkler as Honorary Member of the delegation.