Heide Simonis (; born 4 July 1943 in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

as Heide Steinhardt) is a German Author and Politician. She is a member of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

. From 1993 to 2005 she served as the

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

. She was the first woman to serve as head of a state government in German history and the only woman to do so in the 20th century.

Personal Life and Education

Simonis earned her high school degree ( Abitur) in 1962 in Nürnberg. She then studied

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

and

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

at the Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg and

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

, graduating with a degree in economics in 1967. She worked in different positions after 1967. Simonis is married to

university professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

Udo Simonis.

Career

Simonis joined the

in 1969. She was elected to the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

in 1976. In 1992, she became a member of the legislature of Schleswig-Holstein. On 19 May 1993, she was elected

of said state, after her predecessor

Björn Engholm Björn Engholm (born 9 November 1939) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was Federal Minister for Education and Science from 1981 to 1982, and in 1982 also Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests. From 1 ...

resigned from that position due to a scandal. She was the first woman in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to rise to this level in politics. The state election in 1996 saw the SPD drop down to 39.8% (from 46.2% in 1992), but Simonis was able to form a coalition with the Greens. In February 2000, at the height of a CDU party financing scandal, the

was able to enlarge its share to 43.1%. Despite basing its 2005

election campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...

on Simonis' popularity, the

suffered a heavy defeat due to the bad economic situation and dropped down to 38.7% (for the first time in almost twenty years behind the CDU). On 17 March 2005 Simonis failed to be re-elected as

in 4 consecutive ballots by the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag. In the 1st

ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16 ...

she received 34 votes and

Peter Harry Carstensen Peter Harry Carstensen (born 12 March 1947) is a German politician, in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. From 2005 to 2012 he was Minister President of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2005/ ...

( CDU) received 33 while 2 deputies cast empty votes. Neither Simonis nor Carstensen got the

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority r ...

(35 votes). In the 2nd and 3rd ballot the candidates received 34 votes each. Obviously one deputy of the alliance of SPD, Grüne (Greens) and SSW abstained. An unprecedented 4th ballot brought the same result and Simonis has since stepped down as

UNICEF

From 2005 until February 2008 Simonis served as Chief of the German

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

. She resigned from this position due to a scandal related to donations to the organisation that arose during her term.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonis, Heide 1943 births Living people Politicians from Bonn Members of the Bundestag for Schleswig-Holstein Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein People from the Rhine Province Female members of the Bundestag Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 2nd Class Ministers-President of Schleswig-Holstein Ministers of the Schleswig-Holstein State Government 20th-century German women politicians 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Women Ministers-President in Germany

Personal Life and Education

Career

UNICEF

See also

References