Ursula Pistorius

Ursula Pistorius (née Raabe; born 18 January 1933, in Frankfurt (Oder); died 4 September 2015, in Osnabrück) was a German politician (SPD) and a Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony.^[1]

Ursula Pistorius
Member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony
In office 21 June 1978 – 20 June 1990
Constituency	Osnarbrück-East
Member of the City Council of Osnabrück
In office 1972–1996
Personal details
Born	Ursula Raabe (1933-01-18)18 January 1933 Frankfurt (Oder), German Reich
Died	4 September 2015(2015-09-04) (aged 82)
Political party	Social Democratic Party

Early life and education

Pistorius first went to grade school and later to a secondary school and a comprehensive school until 1949.^[2] In that same year her family moved to West Germany. In 1952 she got her Abitur at the catholic girls school Angelaschule [de] in Osnabrück.^[2]

She worked in a publishing company since 1952 and joined the Trade, Banking and Insurance Union in 1953. She quit her job after giving birth to her first son in 1956.^{[citation needed]}

Political career

Ursula Pistorius became a member of the SPD in 1970. She was on the City Council of Osnarbrück from 1972 to 1996. She was a member of various committees during her tenure^[2][3]

She represented the Constituency Osnarbrück-East from the 9th to the 11th legislative period of the Landtag of Lower Saxony. She won her constituency directly (Direktmandat)^[a] in the elections of 1978 [de], 1982 [de] and 1986 respectively. She was deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary caucus in the Landtag from 21 June 1986, to 20 June 1990.^[4][3]

Personal life

She married Ludwig Pistorius (1923–2009) with whom she had three sons born in 1956, 1960 and 1962 respectively. She quit her job after giving birth to her first son.^[2] Pistorius' second son is Boris Pistorius, a SPD-politician who was lord mayor of Osnarbrück and is the current Federal Minister of Defence since 19 January 2023.^[5][4]

After her retirement she started a Seniorenstudium [de] (senior studies) and travelled through eastern Europe. In 2015 she died at the age of 82 following a short, heavy illness.^[6]

Notes

1. Due to the German electoral system it is possible for a candidate to fail to win in their First-past-the-post constituency and still enter the Landtag.