[5] A long-time member of the German-Israeli Association, Steinbach is also known for pro-Israeli views, and has often criticized the German Foreign Office for voting in favour of anti-Israeli resolutions at the UN.

Steinbach's father, Wilhelm Karl Hermann, was born in Hanau (Hesse, western-central Germany), but his family had their origins in Lower Silesia.

[7] In 1941 he was stationed in Rumia (German: Rahmel), a village in the Second Polish Republic, which was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939 as part of the newly created province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.

In January 1945 during East Prussian Offensive of the Soviet Army, Steinbach's mother together with her children, fled to Schleswig-Holstein in northwestern Germany.

Steinbach graduated from a school of civil administration and moved to Frankfurt, where she started working for a Communal Evaluation Office.

[20] Erika Steinbach is the founder, along with Peter Glotz, of the foundation Centre Against Expulsions (German: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen), which is working to establish a museum for the victims of "Flight, displacements, forced resettlements and deportations all over the world in the past century",[21] a project of the German federal government on initiative and with participation of the Federation of Expellees.

[27][28] The exhibition deals with expulsions of German, Armenians, Poles, Turks, Greeks, Latvians, Karelians, Ukrainians, Italians and other peoples – topics many Europeans are unfamiliar with.

[citation needed] Steinbach was a member of the CDU national board from 2000 to September 2010, when she chose to resign from the position following a controversy over comments about the German invasion of Poland.

[34] Erika Steinbach was considered conservative within the CDU in most fields of policy, belonging to the initiators of the Berliner Kreis in der Union [de].

[35] Erika Steinbach holds conservative views on social policy and opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, which sometimes has caused controversy.

[37] Steinbach's public pronouncements have been criticized by late President of Poland Lech Kaczyński for causing a deterioration in German-Polish relations.

One example of this was a 2003 cover montage of Polish news magazine Wprost that depicted her riding Chancellor Gerhard Schröder while wearing an SS uniform.

[46] At the time the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, privately warned Berlin that allowing Mrs Steinbach’s appointment would shake German-Polish relations “to their foundations”.

[48] The fact that Steinbach represents a person born to a German officer stationed in occupied Poland has been described as one of the essential issues for Poles.

[49] Václav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic and anti-communist dissident, was said to refuse to speak to Steinbach due to the positions taken by the Federation of Expellees under her leadership.

[53] Some German media blame members of Law and Justice for having used her as a "hate figure" in internal politics to counter Donald Tusk[54] ignoring Steinbach's "real views".

However demonstrations by left-wing students who protested against Steinbach's allegedly revisionist views on German history by throwing water filled balloons and blocking the entrances compelled her to cancel the further lectures.

The local Mayor, supported by several political parties, expressed his displeasure about the incident and requested that the university council invite Steinbach again.

[57] On 9 July 2009, she was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit by Prime Minister of Bavaria Horst Seehofer for her work for the rights of the victims of the Expulsion.