# Josefine Koebe

Josefine Koebe (German:; born (1988-07-03)3 July 1988) is a German politician (SPD) and economist. She has been a member of the Landtag of Hesse and Secretary General of the SPD Hesse since 2024.

## Life

Koebe was born in Bensheim where she attended the Altes Kurfürstliches Gymnasium and graduated in 2007. She then studied International Economics at Tübingen and spent a two-semester exchange programme at Sciences Po Paris. After completing her bachelor's degree in 2012, she studied at HU Berlin in the Master's programme Economics and finished it in 2015.
From March 2015 to October 2017, Koebe worked as deputy head of the parliamentary office of the then Erste Parlamentarische Geschäftsführerin (Chief Whip) of the SPD parliamentary group, Christine Lambrecht.
Koebe then began doctoral studies at the Universität Hamburg and was awarded her PhD in 2023 with a thesis on "Unintended Yet Effective: Evidence from Policy Reforms in Early Childhood Education and Care, Education and Environmental Economics". From January 2018 to December 2021, as part of her doctorate, she was a research assistant in the Education and Family Division at the Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW) in Berlin.
From October 2021 to March 2024, she managed research collaborations in early education and the company's research and university network for Fröbel Bildung und Erziehung gGmbH.
Koebe is married and has four children. She is currently in a relationship with the Hessian Minister for Economic Affairs, Kaweh Mansoori (SPD).

## Politics

Koebe has been a member of the SPD since 2013. Among other things, she was a member of the district executive Tempelhof-Schöneberg of the Berlin SPD for several years, the state executive of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialdemokratischer Frauen (Association of Social Democratic Women, ASF) Berlin and in the state committee for youth, education and family of the Berlin SPD.
In 2021, she was elected to the governing body (Magistrat) of the city of Bensheim as an honorary alderwoman (Stadträtin). She has been deputy chairperson of the local SPD association since the same year. In the Bergstraße SPD county association, she was elected deputy chairperson on 6 November 2021 at the party congress in Wald-Michelbach and also chairperson of the ASF in the same year. She has been a member of the state board of the Sozialdemokratische Gemeinschaft für Kommunalpolitik (Social Democratic Community for Local Politics, SGK Hesse) since July 2023. On 2 September 2023, she was elected to the executive committee of the SPD district of Southern Hesse at the party congress in Offenbach.
Due to her election to the state parliament, she resigned from the Bensheim municipal governing body in December 2023.

### Member of Parliament

In the 2023 Hessian state election, she stood as a candidate in the Bergstraße II constituency and was elected to the Landtag of Hesse, which was constituted in January 2024, via the SPD state list.
She was elected as the deputy chair of the Budget Committee. Additionally, she serves as the spokesperson for early childhood education for the SPD parliamentary group and is a member of the Subcommittee on Financial Controlling and Administrative Management, as well as a deputy member of the State Youth Welfare Committee, the Administrative Committee of the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and the Investigation Committee 21/1 (COVID-19). At the beginning of the legislative period, she was a member of the Committee on Science and Culture for several months.
Since 2024, she has been a member of the Board of Administration as a representative of the State of Hesse, Deputy Chairwoman of the Risk and Credit Committee and a member of the WI-Bank Committee of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba).

### Secretary General of the SPD Hesse

On 9 March 2024, she was elected Secretary General of the Hessian SPD at the party conference in Frankfurt am Main.

## Links

* Website of Dr. Josefine Koebe, MdL