Dagmar Wöhrl


Dagmar Gabriele Wöhrl, born as Winkler is a German politician with the CSU.

Early life and career

As Dagmar Gabriele Winkler, she represented Germany in various beauty pageants: the 1973 Miss Universe beauty pageant where she did not place; the Miss International 1977 beauty pageant where she placed as 1st runner-up ; the Miss World 1977 beauty pageant where she placed as 2nd runner-up; the 1977 Miss Europe beauty pageant.

Political career

In 1994, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2013, Wöhrl was elected to the German Bundestag, representing Nuremberg North. In the first government of Chancellor Angela Merkel between 2005 and 2009, she served as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology under ministers Michael Glos and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections, Wöhrl was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on economic affairs and energy policy, led by Guttenberg and Rainer Brüderle. She later served as Chairwoman of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag. She was also a member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with Arabic-Speaking States in the Middle East, which is in charge of maintaining inter-parliamentary relations with Bahrain, Irak, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Palestinian territories.
From 2009, Wöhrl also served on the Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs, where she was her parliamentary group's rapporteur on creative industries.
In March 2015, Wöhrl accompanied German President Joachim Gauck on a state visit to Peru. In addition, she joined the delegations of Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller to Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and the Central African Republic.
In April 2016, Wöhrl announced that she would not stand in the 2017 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. By early 2017, media reported that she would be joining the jury of Die Höhle der Löwen, a VOX reality television format featuring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas in order to secure investment finance from a panel of venture capitalists.

Political positions

Development policy

When several Western countries froze their official development assistance for Uganda in response to the country's Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2014, Wöhrl warned that "stopping all the aid would only hit the poorest of poor once again."

Peace-keeping on the African continent

During her time in parliament, Wöhrl voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as in Somalia – both Operation Atalanta and EUTM Somalia –, Darfur/Sudan, South Sudan, Mali – both EUTM Mali and MINUSMA –, the Central African Republic, and Liberia. She abstained from the vote on extending the mandate for Operation Atalanta in 2011.

European integration

On February 27, 2015, Wöhrl voted against the Merkel government’s proposal for a four-month extension of Greece's bailout; in doing so, she joined a record number of 29 dissenters from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group who expressed skepticism about whether the Greek government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras could be trusted to deliver on its reform pledges. On July 17, she voted against the government’s proposal to negotiate a third bailout for Greece.

Other activities (selection)

Corporate boards

Wöhrl is the wife of the German CEO Hans Rudolf Wöhrl. Her older son Marcus ran for the European Parliament in 2004.