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Gesine Lötzsch | |
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 Lötzsch in 2018 | |
| Member of theBundestag forBerlin-Lichtenberg | |
| In office 22 October 2002 – 23 February 2025 | |
| Succeeded by | Ines Schwerdtner |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1961-08-07)7 August 1961 (age 64) |
| Political party | Die Linke (The Left) |
| Occupation | Politician |
Gesine Lötzsch (German pronunciation:[ɡeˈziːnəˈløːtʃ]; born 7 August 1961) is a German politician of theleft-wing partyDie Linke ("The Left"). In 2010, withKlaus Ernst, she was elected president of the party.
Born atBerlin-Lichtenberg in what then wasEast Germany, Lötzsch joined theSocialist Unity Party of Germany in 1984 and continued a member of its successor parties: theSED-PDS (1989–1990), thePDS, (1990–2005),Die Linkspartei.PDS (2005–2007), and from 2007,Die Linke. In 2002, as a candidate of the Party of Democratic Socialism, Lötzsch was elected to the Germanparliament (theBundestag) for the constituencyBerlin-Lichtenberg, which she represented until 2025. For her first term, she andPetra Pau were the only PDS deputies in the chamber as the party failed to surpass the 5%electoral threshold. In the2021 German federal elections her winning her constituency again proved pivotal as her party again failed to surpass the electoral threshold but gained representation proportional to its vote share due to having won three constituencies (in addition to hersBerlin-Treptow-Köpenick won byGregor Gysi andLeipzig II won bySören Pellmann).
Lötzsch has been criticized for suggesting that former employees of theStasi, the secret police of the former East German state, should be allowed to serve in parliaments and governments.[1] The leader of theAlliance '90/The Greens,Claudia Roth, claimed that Lötzsch wants to "sweep the past under the carpet".[2] Lötzsch's local party group in Berlin-Lichtenberg has invited former Stasi employees and informers to speak on several occasions with her support: for instance,Erich Mielke's immediate deputy,Werner Grossmann, was invited as a speaker.[3] Green member of parliamentWolfgang Wieland criticized her for appearing as a speaker before arevisionist association, theInitiativgemeinschaft zum Schutz der sozialen Rechte [de] (tr. the Community Initiative for the Protection of the Social Rights).[4]
Lötzsch was married to Ronald Lötzsch (1931–2018), who in 2010 was revealed to have been anunofficial collaborator for the Stasi.[5][6]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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