Bernd Fabritius

Bernd Fabritius (born 14 May 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) who has served as a Member of the Bundestag from 2013 to 2017 and again in 2021.

Early life and education Fabritius was born in Agnita, Sibiu County, Romania, and is a Transylvanian Saxon. His father was an insurance merchant and his mother was a bank clerk. He attended the German-language high school Samuel von Brukenthal National College in Sibiu in the early-1980s before working briefly as an assistant teacher. He left communist Romania with his family and settled in the Bavarian town of Waldkraiburg in 1984; he has said his family and other Romanian Germans left Romania with a heavy heart and only due to state pressure of the then-communist regime. From 2016, he was the rapporteur on the reform of Interpol and the rule of law in south-east European countries.

In November 2014, Fabritius was elected President of the Federation of Expellees (BdV), succeeding Erika Steinbach. He has described his goal as the organisation's leader as representing the interests of all people with roots in Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe and as building bridges with those countries. While the Federation of Expellees has traditionally focused on the expellees of the 1940s, Fabritius has said he will also place emphasis on recent emigrants from Eastern Europe such as the Romanian Germans.

Under the umbrella of the German parliaments’ godparenthood program for human rights activists, Fabritius has been raising awareness for the work of persecuted Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleg Sentsov since 2015.

Other activities Corporate boards Autohaus Michael Schmidt GmbH, Member of the Advisory Board Honterus-Verlag, Member of the Supervisory Board

Non-profits Bavaria-Romania for Social Assistance in Romania, Co-Founder Carl Wolff Gesellschaft, Member of the Board of Trustees Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Member of the Board of Trustees German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR), Member of the Board of Trustees Goethe-Institut, Member of the General Meeting Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees ZDF, Member of the Television Board (representing the Federation of Expellees)

Political positions In June 2017, Fabritius was one of only seven CSU members who voted in favor of Germany’s introduction of same-sex marriage.

Personal life Fabritius lives in a civil union with his partner; it became publicly known that he is gay in 2014.