page_title: Marina Weisband
section_title: Life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Marina Weisband / Life and career
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Vorstand der Piratenpartei Deutschland auf dem Piratenparteitag 2011.2 v.l.n.r.: René Brosig, Matthias Schrade, Marina Weisband, Sebastian Nerz, Gefion Thürmer, Wilm Schumacher, Bernd Schlömer
context_page_description: Marina Weisband is a German politician. From May 2011 until April 2012 she was Politische Geschäftsführerin of the Pirate Party Germany.
context_section_description: Weisband was born and raised in Kiev to a Jewish family. In 1994, she and her family moved to Wuppertal in Germany as Kontingentflüchtlinge (literally "Quota refugees"—these are foreigners admitted to Germany on humanitarian or compassionate grounds. Most Kontingentflüchtlinge from the former Soviet Union are Jewish.) She finished school in 2006 and studies psychology at the University of Münster. Currently, she is working on her diploma thesis.
  Weisband joined the German Pirate Party in 2009. The Pirate Party won its first seats in a regional election in Berlin on 18 September 2011, gaining around 9% of the vote.
  In April 2012, with support from other senior Pirate Party figures, she called on members of her party to tackle antisemitism and right-wing extremism within their own ranks. Der Spiegel suggested that the Pirate Party needed to dispel a perception that it was a sympathetic environment for radical extremists.  Shortly afterwards Weisband announced she would not be seeking re-election next month, citing the need to focus on studying for her degree in psychology.  She did not rule out a return to politics after graduating.
  Weisband is the Pirate Party's most recognised face, appealing particularly to younger voters with her "laid-back style". In 2013 she published a book advocating direct, "liquid" democracy.
  She revealed in September 2016 that she had left the Pirate Party the previous year and was focussing on the Aula project, an initiative to facilitate children's participation in politics using software she had developed that was being tested in four German cities.
  Weisband was a Pirate Party delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2017.
  In 2018 she became member of the party Alliance 90/The Greens.
caption: The Pirate Party leadership (2011). From left to right: Rene Brosig, Matthias Schrade, Marina Weisband, Sebastian Nerz, Gefion Thürmer, Wilm Schumacher, Bernd Schlömer
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