Hanover
When she explains the current numbers of people with corona infection almost daily before the state press conference, the room on the lower ground floor of the state parliament is silent as a mouse. She explains a new regulation in great detail or diplomatically clears up doubts about alleged contradictions: Claudia Schröder, deputy head of the state government’s crisis team, has now become the face of corona crisis management. In addition to Minister of Social Affairs Carola Reimann (SPD) and State Secretary Heiger Scholz, she catapulted the ministry’s important role in the pandemic into the consciousness of citizens.
The 59-year-old lawyer heads Department 4, Health and Prevention, at the Ministry of Social Affairs. When Scholz was appointed chairman of the crisis team, she was, according to the state government’s rules of procedure, something like the “natural” representative of the body that controls Lower Saxony through the pandemic. They rarely work less than 16 hours a day. “I start at 7 a.m.,” she says. At 7.30 a.m. there is the first meeting about the situation center in the Ministry of the Interior, mostly by video or telephone conference. At around 8.15 a.m., all current figures are available, which the Lower Saxony State Health Office makes available. The crisis team meets later. Almost needless to say that the working day usually ends after midnight.
Around 30 employees are active in the Ministry of Social Affairs staff alone. One meeting chases the next. Most recently, for example, the “Five-Step Plan” in Lower Saxony was developed. “Lawyers from many departments are involved,” says Schröder, “as are the associations, including the local umbrella organizations.” After all, the regulation had to be implemented locally. The work is “extremely challenging”, Schröder says, diplomatically. The time pressure is enormous until Social Minister Reimann and ultimately Prime Minister Stephan Weil could “put their hooks” under it.
There are also other problems to be solved, such as the procurement of so-called FFP2 masks for hospitals and medical practices. Pharmacies are waiting for drug exemptions. Or a compensation payment to a hospital has to be approved. “For this alone we have a contact person in the Ministry of Finance day and night.” In any case, the agreements between the ministries went smoothly even in the crisis.
Claudia Schröder comes from Offenburg near Freiburg (Breisgau). She then studied in Hanover and stayed in Lower Saxony because of love. Today she lives with her husband in Bavenstedt, a district of Hildesheim with 1400 inhabitants. The CDU member also works there as a volunteer mayor. “But the local council is not currently meeting,” she says. Her hobbies – Schröder does a lot of sport and passionately plays the piano – are currently on hold. And what does she plan when the work in the crisis team is finished? “We would like to go on vacation in Germany,” says the mother of two grown children, “maybe with the whole family”. Because the video chat cannot replace personal contacts.
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