Heike Heubach (pronounced as /de/; born 14 December 1979) is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). She is the first deaf member of the German Bundestag.
Heubach was born in Rottweil in 1979.[1] She suffered a middle ear infection as an infant, which is believed to have caused her deafness.
After primary school and Hauptschule, she completed her Mittlere Reife at a commercial school in 1999, studied for one year in a Gymnasium, and finally obtained a specialised Fachabitur leaving certificate at a Fachoberschule in 2003.[2] From 2008 to 2011 she trained as an industrial clerk at E.ON Facility Management.[3]
Heubach worked as an industrial manager,[4] at E.ON until 2013, then at .[2] [5]
Heubach joined the SPD in November 2019, and ran for the Stadtberg city council in the 2020 local elections. In February 2021, she was nominated as a direct candidate for SPD Bavaria in the Augsburg-Land constituency for the 2021 federal election.[6] with approximately 14% of first votes, she was not elected on the party list.[4]
On 20 March 2024, she replaced Uli Grötsch in the Bundestag when he resigned,[7] becoming its first deaf member.[4] [8] She was welcomed to the plenary hall of the parliament building on 21 March.[9] Carolin Wagner, the chairwoman of the Bavarian regional group in the SPD parliamentary group, called the event "a milestone for the inclusion and representation of the deaf community".[10]
Unlike most members of the Bundestag, Heubach will have an assigned seat in the chamber. As an accessibility measure, sign language interpreters will be positioned near her, and when she speaks, an interpreter with a microphone will be positioned next to the parliamentary stenographers.[4] She has said that while inclusion will be a focus of hers in the Bundestag, specifically the shortage of sign-language interpreters, her primary issue will be the climate crisis.
Heubach lives in Stadtbergen in the Augsburg district. She is married and has two children.[2] [11] Her sign name is the sign for "smile".