Annette Schavan, German theologian and politician
Annette Schavan (pronounced [aˈnɛtə ʃaˈvaːn] (listen); born 10 June 1955) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She was the Federal Minister of Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2013, when she resigned following the revocation of her doctorate due to plagiarism. From 2014 until 2018 she served as the German Ambassador to the Holy See. From April 2018, she also briefly served as first German Ambassador to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.Throughout her political career, Schavan was widely known to be a friend and a confidante of Merkel’s.