Brunhilde Hanke (née Anweiler; born 23 March 1930) is a German retired politician who was mayor of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

and a member of the

State Council of East Germany The State Council of East Germany (German: ''Staatsrat der DDR'') was the collective head of state of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1960 to 1990. Origins When the German Democratic Republic was founded in October 1949, its ...

Early life

Hanke was born in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

into a working-class family. She completed an apprenticeship as a seamstress in 1947, during which she joined the

Free German Trade Union Federation The Free German Trade Union Federation (german: Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 and 1990. As a mass organis ...

. She soon also became a member of 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) and its youth organisation, the Free German Youth (FDJ). In 1951–52 she studied at the Komsomol academy in Moscow. She completed a diploma in social sciences at the in 1962.

Political career

From 1952 until 1963 Hanke was part of the FDJ's central council. Hanke became mayor of Potsdam in 1961. Her tenure as mayor was marked by the construction of 37,000 apartment units, largely in the ''Plattenbau'' style. During her mayoralty she also came into conflict with

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed w ...

leadership regarding the preservation and restoration of historic buildings. Hanke remained mayor until 1984. Afterwards, from 1987, she led the local in Potsdam. In 1963 Hanke was elected to the . In 1967 she was made a member of the State Council of the GDR, the country's

collective head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

. She remained a member of both institutions until 1990. Hanke was awarded the

Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...

in bronze in 1974 and in silver in 1979. Following German reunification, Hanke became a member of the political party Die Linke.

References

1930 births Living people Politicians from Erfurt Politicians from the Province of Saxony Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Free German Youth members Free German Trade Union Federation members Democratic Women's League of Germany members Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians The Left (Germany) politicians Members of the State Council of East Germany Members of the 4th Volkskammer Members of the 5th Volkskammer Members of the 6th Volkskammer Members of the 7th Volkskammer Members of the 8th Volkskammer Members of the 9th Volkskammer Female members of the Volkskammer Mayors of places in Brandenburg Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver 21st-century German women politicians German women trade unionists {{germany-SED-politician-stub