Solveig Leo (born November 1943) is a German farmer and politician who served as Mayor of

Banzkow Banzkow is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Since 2009 it has included Goldenstädt. From 1992 to 2009 Solveig Leo, who achieved celebrity status as the youngest LPG chairperson in East Ge ...

from 1992 to 2009.

Biography

Leo was born in 1943 in Nazi-occupied

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

. In the aftermath of the war, she and her family were relocated to

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

, which was located in the newly formed

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. She completed her apprenticeship as a farmer at the VEG Ludwigshof, which was followed by studies at the Technical School of Agriculture in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

. At an agricultural exhibition in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, her talents were recognized by the Chairman of the LPG

, who recruited her, and she relocated to Bezirk Schwerin. She joined the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

(SED) in 1965 and in January 1968, at just 24 years old and already married with children, she was elected Chairwoman of the LPG '

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the ...

'. She instantly achieved celebrity status in the country, and she was considered a prototype of the modern, young East German woman. In addition to her duties as a farm chairperson and mother, she was a distance learning student at the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...

and a member of the district management of the

Free German Youth The Free German Youth (german: Freie Deutsche Jugend; FDJ) is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The organization was meant ...

in Schwerin. In 1969, Leo was awarded the title

Hero of Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

. In 1971, she was elected to the Central Council of the Free German Youth, a position she held for many years. As agriculture became more centralized in East Germany, Leo was elected Chairwoman of the new Agricultural-Industrial Association Lewitz, a state-run collective that contained twelve LPGs and three VEGs, a total of 31,000 hectares of agricultural land. Following

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, Leo worked as an organic farming consultant and was elected Mayor of

in 1992 as a member of the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor party of the SED. She held the mayoral office until her retirement in 2009. In April 2001, she was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

References

{{Authority control 1943 births Mayors of places in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania German farmers German women farmers Socialist Unity Party of Germany members University of Rostock alumni Living people Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany