Gertrud Schmidt comes from Saarbrücken and has been active in Alliance 90/The Greens since the late 1990s. Most recently, she was a member of the Saarbrücken Regional Association Council, responsible for regional development and youth welfare.

A graduate sociologist, she is responsible for women's and gender equality policy at the Saarland Chamber of Labour. This institutional workers' representation is active in many political fields of action in the Saar - with numerous intersections with the topics of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

At the Heinrich Böll Foundation Saar, Gertrud Schmidt has been actively involved in the conception of political and cultural education work on the board for many years.