Ursula von der Leyen: Assets & Salary of the EU Commission President

How much does Ursula von der Leyen earn?

Ursula von der Leyen’s father was a top German politician. His defeat in the Lower Saxony state elections in 1990 prompted the doctorate to go into politics herself. Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, von der Leyen headed three ministries one after the other. At the end of 2019 she became the first female Commission President in EU history. The cherished Ursula von der Leyen’s assets are 3 million euros.

Ursula von der Leyen’s income

Before Ursula von der Leyen concentrated on her political career in the early 2000s, she worked as a doctor and as a research assistant at the Hannover Medical School. Her gross salary was probably at least 5,000 euros a month. So she could begin building her fortune. As a politician, salaries increased and Ursula von der Leyen’s fortune increased accordingly. As Federal Minister, who was von der Leyen from 2005 to 2019, she received monthly office salaries of around 15,000 euros gross. Since she had a seat in the Bundestag from 2009 to 2019, During this period, her salary as Federal Minister increased to just under 19,000 euros gross per month.

Salary as EU Commission President

As President of the EU Commission, von der Leyen earns a gross annual base salary of 334,836 euros, which corresponds to a gross salary of 27,903 euros. In addition, there are allowances such as travel expenses and expense allowances, which are referred to as household allowances. As President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen earns a monthly salary of 32,500 euros gross. This corresponds to an annual salary of EUR 390,000. This means that she can continue to grow her wealth well.

Doctorate in medicine

After Ursula von der Leyen graduated from high school in 1976, she first studied archeology at the University of Göttingen for one year. Then she switched to economics, which she studied in Göttingen and Münster until 1980. She then began studying medicine at the Hannover Medical School (MHH). In 1986 she married Heiko von der Leyen, doctor and university professor, with whom she had seven children from 1987 to 1999. In 1987 she completed her medical studies with a state examination and license to practice medicine. From 1988 to 1992 she worked as an assistant doctor, and in 1991 she received her doctorate. Between 1997 and 2001 she completed postgraduate studies, which she completed with a Master of Public Health. Before joining the state politics of Lower Saxony, she then worked as a research assistant at the MHH.

Career in politics

In 1990 Ursula von der Leyen became a member of the CDU. The reason for this was that her father Ernst Albrecht had previously lost the Lower Saxony Prime Minister election to Gerhard Schröder. In February 2003 von der Leyen was elected to the Lower Saxony state parliament by direct mandate. A month later she became Lower Saxony’s Minister for Social Affairs, Women, Family and Health. At the end of 2004 she was elected to the presidium of the CDU. In August 2005, the then CDU federal chairman appointed Angela Merkel von der Leyen to the party’s internal competence team for family and health. When Merkel was elected Chancellor in November 2005, she accepted von der Leyen as Family Minister in her cabinet.

Triple Minister

In the 2009 federal election, Ursula von der Leyen entered the Bundestag for the first time via the CDU state list in Lower Saxony. In addition, she initially remained family minister. However, just one month after she was sworn in, she took over the post of Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs in November 2009. With Merkel’s re-election in December 2013, von der Leyen moved to the Ministry of Defense. This made her the first woman in German history to head this ministry. In July 2019, the European Council of Heads of State and Government nominated von der Leyen for the Commission presidency. A few days later she was elected to office with an absolute majority. For this reason, she resigned as defense minister the day after the election, and she also resigned from the CDU federal executive board and the Bundestag. In December In 2019 she took office as the first female Commission President in EU history.

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Unión Europea en Perú from Lima, Perú, [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons}