Ena von Baer

Born in the Araucanía Region of Chile to biological-geneticist Erik von Baer and Helga Jahn, Ena von Baer was raised between the towns of Cajón, Gorbea, and Temuco. She is the third of four sisters; the others are Ingrid, Karina, and Sybille. Her German father came as a child with his parents from Germany to Chile after the World War II. The von Baer family is credited for support of agriculture in the Arauco Province.

Ena von Baer studied at Temuco's German school, the Colegio Alemán de Temuco. She moved to Santiago in 1994 to study journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In 1998, she married Eduardo Frohlich, a civil engineer with whom she has two children. After her marriage, she traveled to Germany to pursue a master's degree and a doctorate in political science from RWTH Aachen University.

Upon her return to Chile in 2002, von Baer worked as researcher for the political science department at the Liberty & Development Institute (Instituto Libertad y Desarrollo or LyD). She then served as the Academic Director of the School of Government in the Adolfo Ibáñez University, a position which she later abandoned in order to return to LyD as Director of its Social and Political Program. She dedicated her work to research into political systems and electoral studies, and to developing social politics related to poverty and indigenous peoples. She also worked as a legislative advisor, especially in the subject of automatic electoral enrollment and voluntary vote. During the same time, she was a professor at the Faculty of Government at the University for Development and a panelist on a program of Televisión Nacional de Chile, Estado Nacional.[1]

Although von Baer has had no formal political career and is not involved with any particular political party, she accepted to run as senator representing her native region, and for which she was supported by the Independent Democratic Union (UDI). She lost the seat by a narrow margin to José García Ruminot of the National Renewal (RN). After her defeat, she was campaign spokeswoman for Sebastián Piñera's presidential runoff race. She had previously worked as academic of Piñera's government program as part of the so-called Grupos Tantauco.

On 9 February 2010, President Piñera named von Baer as Minister Secretary-General of Government. She took office on 11 March 2010. At the president's request, she resigned in July, 2011. A few days later, she was designated as senator.[2]

In 2011 von Baer was used as an example of someone in the government with family members who have acquired the patents for crops and will benefit from the privatisation of seed.[3]

For the 2013 parliamentary election she first intended run as senator for the same district she was representing -Santiago Oriente. However the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) assigned instead Laurence Golborne as their candidate there.[4] Von Baer was however allowed a slot by UDI to run for Circunscripción Nº 16, Los Ríos Region, where she was actually elected. Her campaign was financed by SOQUIMICH[5] and was actually the parliament election campaign that spent most money per vote obtained in that election in the whole of Chile.[6]

• Von Baer, Ena – Die Rolle der Vergangenheitsbewältigung im Systemwechsel (Fallbeispiel Chile); Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller; 2007 – ISBN 3-8364-2618-8 (published in German)

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