Sarah-Lee Heinrich

Sarah-Lee Heinrich (born 22 March 2001, Iserlohn, Germany) is a German non-party politician after leaving the German Green Party in September 2024.

Heinrich completed her abitur at the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium in Unna in 2019, and studied politics, sociology and philosophy from 2019 to 2020 at the University of Bonn before studying Social Sciences from 2020 at the University of Cologne.

Political career In 2017, she joined the youth organization Grünen Jugend and founded a local chapter in Unna. She was speaker of this local chapter from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, she was speaker of Grünen Jugend Ruhr.

At 9 October 2021, she was elected with 93.8% of the votes as one of the two federal speakers of the Grüne Jugend.

Heinrich left the Green party in September 2024 after a fall out with the party line. She reappeared as a speaker at The Left party congress in October 2024, announcing a new youth organisation.

Political positions and activism Heinrich advocates for social justice. She criticizes the welfare system Hartz IV where she demands higher benefits and opposes benefit sanctions. Heinrich also campaigns for climate change mitigation where she aims for systemic changes. She is active in the trade union ver.di. she was involved in joint campaigns of Ver.di and Fridays For Future during her time as spokesperson for the Green Youth.

In an interview with Tilo Jung, Heinrich said her political views were inspired by Bernie Sanders and his approach to unite working class interests with anti-racism and climate change mitigation in his 2016 presidential campaign. Heinrich was active as a teamer in the Protestant church in her youth. She is an atheist by her own account

Memberships In addition to her former affiliation with the Green Party and the Green Youth, Heinrich is, by her own account, also a member of the Ver.di trade union, the youth organization of the EVG trade union, Die Falken (Socialist Youth of Germany), and a member of the board of the Institut Solidarische Moderne.

Awards and publications 2021: Edition F (Feminist Magazine) Award in the Politics category. She published the book "GENUG!"(ENOUGH!) in 2023 together with Ines Schwerdtner, Lukas Scholle, Şeyda Kurt, Andrej Holm and Maurice Höfgen, which calls for a change of political course. In it, Heinrich writes about the systematics of poverty in Germany.