The office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers was established in 1988 at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In 2002, the office was expanded to include the national minorities. Natalie Pawlik was appointed to this office on 14 April 2022.

The Commissioner’s main tasks are as follows:

Serving as the main contact at federal level for ethnic German resettlers; coordinating the procedure for admitting them to Germany; coordinating integration measures with the federal, state and local governments and with churches, charities and social organizations active in this area.

The Commissioner also provides assistance to German minorities in their countries of origin, coordinates aid policy measures and serves as co-chair on the government commissions concerning German minority affairs.

As commissioner for matters related to ethnic German resettlers, he is responsible for public information in Germany and for the German minorities abroad.

The commissioner is the central contact person at federal level regarding matters related to the national minorities, representing the Federal Government within existing and possible future contact groups.

For more information about the work of the Federal Government Commissioner for Matters Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities, please see this website and the relevant pages of the Federal Ministry of the Interior website.

Natalie Pawlik was born in Wostok, Siberia (Russia) on 26 August 1992. In 1999, she moved with her parents and sister as ethnic German resettlers to the Federal Republic of Germany; she has lived in Bad Nauheim in the federal state of Hesse since then.

She received a B.A. in history and cultural studies from Giessen University. Starting in 2015, Ms Pawlik worked in the constituency office of Dr Udo Bullmann, member of the European Parliament, most recently as office manager. She was elected to the German Bundestag on 26 September 2021 as a direct candidate in constituency 177, Wetterau I.

Ms Pawlik is a member of the registered association Deutsche Jugend aus Russland e.V. (German youth from Russia), where she is an active volunteer in the area of civic education.