An unusual politician is dead. The Social Democrat Heide Simonis became Germany’s first female Prime Minister in 1993. Twelve years later her political career ended abruptly.
Heide Simonis will always have a special place in the history of the Federal Republic: On May 19, 1993, the state parliament in Kiel elected the SPD politician to be Germany’s first female Prime Minister.
Born in Bonn, she ruled Schleswig-Holstein for almost twelve years before a dissident overthrew her. He or she refused to vote for her in the prime ministerial election on March 17, 2005 in four spectacular rounds and thus ended her career abruptly. Millions watched the drama on TV.
A good 18 years after her worst defeat and just a few days after her 80th birthday, Simonis died at home in Kiel. The news of the politician’s death became known during a state parliament session in the north.
Simonis suffered from Parkinson’s for years. She had her last major public appearance on June 30, 2014: to the applause of many old companions, the then Prime Minister Torsten Albig (SPD) awarded her honorary citizenship in Schleswig-Holstein. She was the first woman after five men to receive this award. “You always had to be particularly competent, particularly clever, particularly convincing, particularly assertive,” said Albig about the conflict-loving woman who at the same time needed harmony.
The political career and its challenges
A female chancellor or defense minister was still pretty much unthinkable when Simonis became head of government in Kiel in 1993. At that time, she replaced Björn Engholm (SPD), who had failed due to the late effects of the Barschel scandal in 1987.
After the state elections in 2005, which he narrowly lost, Simonis refused to join a grand coalition. She wanted to continue with a red-green minority government – supported by the South Schleswig Voters’ Association, the party of the Danish and Frisian minority. The bad word from “Pattex-Heide”, which sticks to her post, made the rounds. Then she had to vacate the chair for her CDU rival Peter Harry Carstensen. She found it noticeably difficult to adjust to a life without political power and great daily attention.
Life after political career
As Germany chairwoman of Unicef, Simonis found a new field of activity. A crisis of confidence in the children’s charity forced her to resign in early 2008. As early as 2006, she attracted public attention with performances that she later regretted: she was mocked as “Hoppel-Heide” for dance performances on the RTL show “Let’s dance”.
The pugnacious social democrat fought many fights with opponents and party friends and got some scratches. Hardly anyone denied her respect for her performance as the first head of government. She stood for women’s power, social issues in politics and – initially reluctantly – for red-green. She was reluctant to swallow the “green toad” in 1996 after the SPD had previously ruled alone.
The political challenges and defeats
Simonis put Schleswig-Holstein on course for modernization, but her finances got out of hand. The north became the country with the highest per capita debt. In the federal government, Simonis, who was once speculated about as a possible federal president or chancellor, failed more often. With plans for a higher value-added tax or inheritance tax, she encountered granite, with a solo attempt to “de-official” with teachers. After Gerhard Schröder became chancellor in 1998, Simonis hoped for a promotion to federal politics, but this did not happen even after Oskar Lafontaine (both SPD) left as finance ministers in March 1999.
“If you occasionally talk to her on the phone, you get the tremors,” Schröder once confessed. “I think I’m more argumentative than him,” she surmised. Because of her quick wit, the quick speaker was a popular guest on talk shows. The wearer of the carnival order “Against animal seriousness” burned herself more often on her brisk tongue – when she called Helmut Kohl the “fat” or Rudolf Scharping an “autistic” in a background round.
“Never experienced such a personally hurtful situation”
The shock was terrible when the still unknown dissenter overthrew her in a secret vote in 2005: “I’ve never experienced such a personally hurtful situation.” In the SPD parliamentary group, the passionate hat wearer spoke of a “sneaky stab in the back”. Before Simonis became head of government in 1993, she was state finance minister and member of the Bundestag. She was pleased that after her more women conquered top positions in politics: “They don’t follow and hit it like men.”
In her old building in Kiel, which was littered with flea market conquests, Simonis liked to make quilts – patchwork blankets. She had been married to the environmental professor Udo Simonis since 1967; the marriage remained childless. He affectionately called her his “Heidchen”. Sometimes the admirer of the opera singer Maria Callas sat down at the piano; She took singing lessons at the age of 70. Simonis wrote books, was involved in social projects, clinic patients and the singers’ association.
Before getting into big politics, the graduate economist had moved out into the big world: in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Simonis taught German in Zambia before selling brassieres for a German manufacturer in Japan. When she was still prime minister, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “When the fifth year was over and I was finally allowed to stop taking the medication, I said to myself: ‘You did it,'” said Simonis in 2008 on her 65th birthday. “I saw myself on the road to victory again.”
Ten years later, marked by the illness, she was only able to celebrate her 75th birthday with a small group in her apartment in Kiel. As a gift, the then SPD Federal Deputy Ralf Stegner brought the Willy Brandt Medal, the party’s highest award.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
