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| Newly elected Bundestag member Rhie Ye-one / Screenshot from Rhie's Instagram |
By Nam Hyun-woo
Rhie Ye-one, a German politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has become the first German federal parliament member of Korean heritage.
According to German media reports, Rhie, 34, will join the parliament, the Bundestag, succeeding Ulla Schmidt, the former Federal Minister of Health.
Rhie ran in the federal election on Sept. 26 as a candidate for the first constituency of Aachen, Nordhein-Westfalen state, and came in third, following rivals from the Greens and the ruling Christian Democratic Union. She won the Bundestag seat, however, as Germany uses the mixed-member proportional representation system.
In Germany's system, half of the 598 nominal members of the Bundestag are elected directly from Germany's 299 constituencies, while the other half obtain their seats through party lists based on the parties' percentages in the nationwide election. Voters in federal elections have two votes: one for a candidate to be the district's representative, and a second vote for a party. Rhie's party, the SPD, was the party that received the most votes nationwide, 25.7%.
"I'm in the German Bundestag!" Rhie wrote on the SPD website. "The phenomenal results of the SPD made it possible for me to get in via the state list and thus join the future Bundestag. … Together we have shown that the SPD is needed more urgently than ever and that people need social democratic answers to their questions."
Rhie was born in Aachen in 1987 to Korean parents who had moved to Germany in 1986. Rhie majored in political science and communication at RWTH Aachen University, and began her political career in 2005 by joining the SPD.
Along with Rhie, two other Germans of Korean heritage were also elected as members of the Berlin House of Representatives in the regional election that also took place on Sept. 26.
Benedict Lux, 40, of the Greens, a lawyer of mixed Korean heritage, was elected after winning 28.9 percent to represent Berlin's constituency of Steglitz-Zehlendorf 1. This is the fourth time that Lux was elected to the position. Lux's mother is Korean.
Marcel Hopp, 33, of the SPD was elected from the constituency of Neukolln 4 with 36.2 percent. Hopp was born in Neukolln to his mother, who is a Korean nurse, and his father, a German locksmith and engineer.
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