Dr. Christl Ruth Vonholdt is a retired pediatrician who is actively engaged in the public sphere. Her research has focused primarily on investigating how an (un)healthy father/mother relationship influences the development of a child's identity. Throughout her career, she has also worked on issues of sexuality and gender. In 2004, she defended the right of the child to a father and a mother before the state. Until 2017, she was Director of the German Institute for Youth and Society (DIJG) and is also a member of the Pediatric Committee for Psychosocial Development. She also currently speaks and writes on the topic of transgenderism, advocating for the protection of children and adolescents from emotional and sexual abuse, and for the right of adolescents to be adequately and appropriately informed about the issues of gender, corporeality, identity and sexuality. She has worked in Germany, South Africa and India.
