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Vera Lengsfeld | |
|---|---|
 Lengsfeld in 2009 | |
| Member of theBundestag forThuringia (Volkskammer; 1990) | |
| In office 4 October 1990 – 18 October 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Joachim Gauck |
| Succeeded by | multi-member district |
| Member of theVolkskammer forBerlin | |
| In office 5 April 1990 – 2 October 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-05-04)4 May 1952 (age 73) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union(1996–2023) |
| Other political affiliations | Alliance 90/The Greens(1993–1996) East German Green Party(1990–1993) Socialist Unity Party(1975–1983) |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence | Berlin |
| Alma mater | Leipzig University Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Occupation | Politician |
Vera Lengsfeld (born 4 May 1952) is a German politician. She was a prominent civil rights activist inEast Germany and after theGerman reunification she first represented theAlliance 90/The Greens and then theGerman Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in theBundestag.
Lengsfeld was born inSondershausen. Her father was an officer in theStasi, the East Germansecret police.[1] After leaving school she studied Philosophy atHumboldt University Berlin. Following her studies, she worked as a lecturer and researcher at the National Institute of Philosophy in the Academy of Sciences ofEast Germany. From 1975, she was a member of theSocialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). After a party procedure she was transferred to the Institute for Scientific Information. In 1981 she left the academy and went to work as an editor.
She became a born-again Christian in 1981, and was active in various civic organizations in East Germany (GDR). She was the co-founder ofPankow Peace Circle [de] in the autumn of 1981, the Environment Library Berlin; Profession group and the Church from Below in 1986. Their commitment included the organization of numerous events of the peace and environmental movements in the GDR, including a "Peace laboratory", "Peace Conference", "Environment Seminar", "Human Rights Seminar," "Church from Below". She was a member of the Continuation Committee for the delegates meeting of the peace group members, who gathered under the title "Specifically for Peace" a year. She was co-organizer of the first human rights seminar held in 1986 in Berlin.
Due to her public protests against the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in East Germany, she was expelled from the SED in 1983 and her profession. In the following years she earned her living as a beekeeper and translator. In 1985 she graduated with a Theology degree.
In January 1988 she was arrested in advance of the demonstration in honour ofLiebknecht andLuxemburg in East Berlin carrying a poster declaring "Every citizen has the right to express his opinion freely and openly" (Article 27 of theConstitution of East Germany) and detained inBerlin Hohenschönhausen prison.[2] She was put on trial by the city district ofLichtenberg on the grounds of "attempted riotous assembly" and although given a custodial sentence she was instead allowed the option of leaving theGDR on a temporary visa[3] effectively deporting her from the country. In February 1988 she went toCambridge in the United Kingdom where she studied Philosophy of Religion atSt. John's College. On the morning of 9 November 1989 she returned to East Germany.
After the Fall of theBerlin Wall she resumed her work as a civil rights activist and served as a member of the Constitutional Commission on the reunification of West Germany and East Germany. At this time she joinedAlliance 90, the Green Party of the GDR, and at the1990 election was elected to the member of the GDR parliament until its dissolution on 2 October 1990 as a member ofAlliance 90/The Greens, the coalition between Alliance 90 and The Greens. Then at thefirst election afterGerman reunification she was elected to theBundestag.
In 1991 she protested theGulf War by keeping quiet during her allotted speech time in the Bundestag until she was cut off.[2]
She was re-elected in the1994 General election. However, in 1996 Alliance 90/The Greens decided to enter into alliances with theParty of Democratic Socialism, the successors to the former SED. A civil rights activist rather than a leftist, Lengsfeld together with other civil rights activists such asGuenter Nooke andEhrhart Neubert defected to theChristian Democratic Union (CDU). She was re-elected at the1998 and2002 elections as a CDU list candidate in her home state ofThuringia. However, for the2005 election she stood in a single member constituency instead and lost her seat. For the2009 election she ran in theBerlin-Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg – Prenzlauer Berg East constituency, the only constituency in the Bundestag to be represented by her former party Alliance 90/Greens. With CDU having finished a distant fourth at the previous election she was thought to have no chance of success[2] and in the event she finished a distant fourth, slightly increasing the CDU vote share.[4]
In August 2009 she produced election posters featuring photos emphasizing hercleavage along with a picture ofAngela Merkel in a very low-cut dress, emblazoned with the sloganWe have more to offer. The posters drew a great deal of attention and some criticism. They were featured on Japanese television and in Brazilian and Peruvian newspapers. Some of the posters were reportedly stolen as souvenirs according to theAgence France-Presse news agency.[5]
Lengsfeld has opposed immigration into Germany, and helped to organize theErklärung 2018 declaration and petition in opposition to it.[6]
On 30 November 2023, she resigned from the CDU.[7]
In 1980 she married her second husband, the mathematician and poetKnud Wollenberger with whom she has two sons.[8] Wollenberger was born in Denmark and enjoyed travel privileges. Unbeknownst to Lengsfeld, he had been a Stasi informant since 1972, and during their marriage he continued to file reports on her activities. It is not known whether the Stasi specifically ordered him to approach Lengsfeld. They divorced in 1992 after his Stasi involvement had come to light.[8] Lengsfeld later said that she felt betrayed that anyone could marry or have children under such circumstances.[1] He later explained to her that he, as a Jew, supported the GDR since he saw it as a response toAuschwitz. She forgave him in 2000 when he was gravely ill.[2]
Lengsfeld's father retired from the Stasi in 1986 rather than obey an order to break with his daughter; in 1988 he publicly took her side.[8]
Her sonPhilipp was treasurer of the CDU parliamentary group of the district assembly of Berlin'sPankow district.
