2002–2010, Pres­i­dent of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court; 1991–1998, chair­man of the In­de­pen­dent Com­mis­sion for the Re­view of As­sets of Par­ties and Mass Or­gan­i­sa­tions of the GDR (UKPV); 1996–1998, deputy chair­man of the ethics com­mit­tee of the Bay­erische Lan­desärztekam­mer.

Art His­to­ri­an; from 1991 to 2017, di­rec­tor of the Zen­tralin­sti­tut für Kun­st­geschichte in Mu­nich; guest pro­fes­sor­ships in Bonn, Haifa and Venice; since 2000, hon­orary pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­nich.

For­eign politi­cian with fo­cus on East­ern and South East­ern Eu­rope and hu­man rights work. For­mer lead­er of the first par­lia­men­tary group of the Ger­man Green Par­ty. 1983–2017 (in­ter­mit­tent­ly), Mem­ber of the Ger­man Bun­destag. 2002–2005, Par­lia­men­tary state sec­re­tary at the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Fam­i­ly Af­fairs, Se­nior Cit­i­zens, Wom­en and Youth. 1998– 2005, Fed­er­al Com­mis­sion­er for For­eign­ers' Af­fairs. Mem­ber of the “Al­liance of Lib­er­als and Democrats for Eu­rope”. Found­ed the aid or­ga­ni­za­tion “Brücke der Hoff­nung.” Chair­wom­an of the board of the Pe­ters­burg­er Di­a­log and di­rec­tor for Cen­tral/East­ern Eu­rope at the Cen­ter for Lib­er­al Moder­ni­ty. Hon­ors: Fed­er­al Cross of Mer­it, “Ramer Award for Courage in the De­fense of Democ­ra­cy” pre­sent­ed by the Amer­i­can Jew­ish Com­mit­tee.

Ju­rist; 1988–1993, head of sec­tion, Schleswig-Hol­stein Min­istry of Wom­en’s Af­fairs; 1993–2014, Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tive Court Berlin/Leipzig (2001 pre­sid­ing judge, 2002–2007 vice-pres­i­dent, 2007–2014 pres­i­dent). From 2015, chair of the Pub­lic Law and Con­sti­tu­tion­al Law Com­mis­sion of the Deutsch­er Ju­ristin­nen­bund e.V. (Ger­man Wom­en Lawyers As­so­ci­a­tion).

His­to­ri­an; Pres­i­dent of the Deutsches His­torisches Mu­se­um. 2015–2017, di­rec­tor of the Si­mon Dub­now In­sti­tute for Jew­ish His­to­ry and Cul­ture and pro­fes­sor of Jew­ish his­to­ry and cul­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leipzig; 2006–2015, di­rec­tor of the Jew­ish Mu­se­um Frank­furt am Main; 2007–2015, di­rec­tor of the Fritz Bauer In­sti­tut and hon­orary pro­fes­sor at the His­torisches Sem­i­nar of Goethe Uni­ver­si­ty Frank­furt am Main; 2001–2015, di­rec­tor of the Leo Baeck In­sti­tute Lon­don.

Ju­rist; 1987–1995, Civ­il ser­vant for the fed­er­al state of Rhineland Palati­nate; 1996–2001, Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ap­plied Labour Stud­ies of the Fed­er­al Em­ploy­ment Agen­cy; 2002–2017, May­or of the city of Lud­wigshafen am Rhein; 2013–2015, Vice pres­i­dent, 2015–2017, Pres­i­dent of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Ger­man Cities.

Ju­rist; 1987–2000, Mem­ber of the Ger­man Bun­destag; 1994–1998, Fed­er­al Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Sci­ence, Re­search and Tech­nol­o­gy; 1999­–2010, Chair­man of the CDU Nor­drhein-West­falen; 2000–2012, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Nor­drhein-West­falen; 2005–2010, Prime Min­is­ter of Nor­drhein-West­falen; Mem­ber of the Coun­cil of the Auschwitz-Birke­nau Foun­da­tion; Mem­ber of the Found­ing Coun­cil of the Auschwitz Pledge Foun­da­tion.

Art His­to­ri­an; 2008–2018, Di­rec­tor of the Mu­se­um für Kun­st und Gewerbe Ham­burg; 1996–2008, Man­aged the col­lec­tion of 19th-cen­tu­ry to con­tem­po­rary art at Städel­mu­se­um Frank­furt; 1989–1996, Cu­ra­tor and mem­ber of the board of di­rec­tors at Schirn Kun­sthalle Frank­furt; 1984–1989, Re­search as­so­ciate at the Liebieghaus sculp­ture col­lec­tion, Frank­furt.

Hu­man­i­ties schol­ar; 1997–2014, Found­ing Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of the Amer­i­can Acade­my in Berlin (since 2015, Se­nior Fel­low and Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Emer­i­tus); 1992–1998, found­ing di­rec­tor of the Ein­stein Fo­rum foun­da­tion in Pots­dam; guest pro­fes­sor­ship at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go, 1994 and 2002.

Pro­fes­sor at the uni­ver­si­ties of Bochum and Dort­mund and di­rec­tor of the “Frau und Gesellschaft” re­search in­sti­tute in Hanover; 1988–1998, Pres­i­dent of the Ger­man Bun­destag; 1985–1988, Fed­er­al Min­is­ter for Youth, Fam­i­ly Af­fairs and Health; 2001–2002, Chair­wom­an of the Ger­man gov­ern­ment’s im­mi­gra­tion com­mis­sion; 2003–2005, Chair­wom­an of the Ex­pert Coun­cil for Mi­gra­tion and In­te­gra­tion. Since 2010, Pres­i­dent of the Ger­man High­er Ed­u­ca­tion Con­sor­tium of the Ger­man-Turk­ish Uni­ver­si­ty in Is­tan­bul (K-DTU).