Career in local politics Strack-Zimmermann was a member of the
Düsseldorf city council from 2004 to 2023. From 2008 until 2014, she served as deputy mayor of Düsseldorf, alongside mayor
Dirk Elbers.
Deputy Chair of the FDP, 2013–2019 Following the election of
Christian Lindner as chairman of the FDP in 2013, Strack-Zimmermann became one of his deputies. She served as part of the party's leadership until 2019, when she was succeeded by
Nicola Beer.
Member of the German Parliament, 2017–2024 Strack-Zimmermann became a member of the Bundestag in the
2017 German federal election. During her first term from 2017 to 2021, Strack-Zimmermann served on the Defence Committee and the Committee for Construction, Housing, Urban Development and Local Authorities. During that time, she was her parliamentary group's spokesperson for defence policy and spokesperson for local government policy. Since 2021, Strack-Zimmermann has been serving as chairwoman of the Defence Committee. In addition to her committee assignments, Strack-Zimmermann has been a member of the German delegation to the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly since 2018, where she is part of the Defence and Security Committee, the Political Committee, the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Defence and Security Cooperation and the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Relations. In the negotiations to form a so-called
traffic light coalition of the
Social Democratic Party (SPD), the
Green Party and the FDP following the
2021 federal elections, Strack-Zimmermann was part of her party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired by
Heiko Maas,
Omid Nouripour and
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff. In her capacity as chair of the defense committee, Strack-Zimmermann visited Ukraine shortly after the
2022 Russian invasion with
Michael Roth and
Anton Hofreiter, the chairs of the Bundestag's foreign relations and European affairs committees respectively. In 2023, Strack-Zimmermann was one of the initiators – alongside
Michelle Müntefering and
Agnieszka Brugger – of a cross-party group promoting a
feminist foreign policy.
Member of the European Parliament, 2024–present In March 2024, Strack-Zimmermann was nominated by the FDP to become the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party's lead candidate for the
2024 European Parliament election. She was elected, and her seat in the German Bundestag was taken up by
Fabian Griewel. In parliament, Strack-Zimmermann has since been chairing the
Subcommittee on Security and Defence. She is also a member of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she is part of the parliament’s delegations to the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly and to the EU-Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee. In 2026, Strack-Zimmermann announced her intention to challenge
Christian Dürr as leader of the FDP at the next party convention; shortly after, she withdrew her candidacy and instead endorsed
Henning Höne. == Other activities ==