Dagmar Elisabeth Schipanski was a German physicist, academic, and politician from Thuringia. Although best known for her 1999 nomination as President of Germany by the conservative Christian Democratic Union and its sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, Schipanski held a variety of political and academic roles during her four-decade-long career and was awarded numerous honors, most notably the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1996. From Wikipedia
