Ursula von der Leyen

76

Ursula von der Leyen : biography

8 October 1958 –

Ursula von der Leyen also introduced the German Elternzeit, a paid parental leave scheme which, following Scandinavian models, reserves two additional months for fathers who go on parental leave as well (Vätermonate in German). This part of the law in particular attracted protest from German conservatives. Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa accused von der Leyen of turning women into "Birthing Machines", while Bavarian colleagues from von der Leyen’s sister party, the CSU, complained that men did not need a "diaper-changing internship." Von der Leyen successfully influenced public opinion about her reforms with a 3 million Euro PR campaign, which was criticized for using public funds for political advocacy and for employing embedded marketing techniques. ("Stealth advertising – The questionable PR campaigns of the federal government"). Report Mainz, Südwestrundfunk, 27 August 2007

Blocking internet child pornography

Ursula von der Leyen advocated the initiation of a mandatory blockage of child pornography on the Internet through Internet service providers via a block list maintained by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA), thus creating the basic infrastructure for extensive censorship of websites deemed illegal by the BKA.Focus Online:

These actions brought her the nickname "Zensursula", a portmanteau word blending the German word for censorship (“Zensur”) and her given name (“Ursula”).Der Spiegel Online: The combination of a sensitive topic like child pornography and internet censorship is said to have caused a rising interest in the Pirate Party.

In July 2009 she referred to the problems of struggling against pedophile pornography on the internet as the responsible persons often use servers located in Africa or India, where "child pornography is legal”. This claim was based on a study by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2006; however, child pornography is in fact illegal in India. Indeed, Indian society has much stricter rules about erotic media than Germany. Ursula von der Leyen later expressed regret for having cited an inaccurate study.

Youth protection

She was the main factor behind the ban and the rating of the Rammstein album Liebe ist für alle da by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien.

Early life

Ursula von der Leyen is the daughter of Ernst (Carl Julius) Albrecht, a prominent CDU politician and European Commission official, as well as a long-time Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.

She was born in Ixelles in Brussels, where her father worked for the European Commission (as a Director-General from 1969), and lived in Belgium until she was 13 years old. In 1971, the family moved to Lehrte in Hanover.

Ursula von der Leyen is a descendant of Baron Ludwig Knoop, a cotton merchant of the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 19th century.{}