Heide Simonis is elected to head the government in Schleswig-Holstein
Although Louise Schroeder had held the office of Berlin’s mayor for a period after the Second World War, hers was only a temporary appointment and Berlin did not have the status of a state. This meant that a woman had never been elected to head a state government in West Germany until 1993.
After a scandal forced the resignation of Bjorn Engholm as Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein, Heide Simonis was selected by her party as the candidate to replace him. The subsequent election in the regional diet established her as the first woman head of a regional government in the history of the Federal Republic. The SPD politician remained in post until 2005, when the SPD received the most votes in her third regional election campaign but no overall majority. When trial votes were held amongst the intended coalition partners, she gained a majority of only one. Four further rounds of voting resulted in a tie and Simonis decided to withdraw her candidature and retire from politics.
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