Gesine Schwan
President of the Viadrina European University
In office 1 October 1999 – 30 September 2008
Preceded by	Hans Weiler
Succeeded by	Gunter Pleuger
Born	May 22, 1943 (1943-05-22) (age 65) Berlin
Political party	SPD
Spouse	Alexander Schwan (died 1989) Peter Eigen (since 2004)
Alma mater	Free University of Berlin University of Freiburg
Profession	Political scientist
Religion	Roman Catholic

Gesine Schwan (born 22 May 1943) is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. This party has nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections. On 23 May 2004, she was defeated by the Christian Democrat and current president Horst Köhler. On 23 May 2009, both will compete again for this position.^[1]

Personal life

Born in Berlin on 22 May 1943, Schwan was baptized in catholic faith^[2] as the daughter of Oberschulrat (Senior School Inspector) Hans R. Schneider. During the Third Reich dictatorship her parents were members of the passive resistance^[3] offering protection to Jewish girl by hiding her. After WWII, the family engaged actively in the reconciliation of the Polish–German relations.

In 1969, Schwan married her first husband, professor Alexander Schwan, with whom she has two children and who died in 1989.^[3] In 2004, Gesine Schwan celebrated her second wedding with longtime companion Peter Eigen in Berlin. He is known as a former World Bank manager as well as founder and current Chair of the Advisory Council of Transparency International.

Academic life

Education

In 1962, Schwan graduated (Abitur) from the bilingual Französisches Gymnasium, a private French secondary school in Berlin. In the same year, she entered academia by starting her studies in history, philosophy, romance languages, and political science. As a student she was registered first at Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) and later at University of Freiburg.^[4]

Early career

After research stays in Warsaw and Krakow, she obtained her Ph.D. in 1970 from FU Berlin for a dissertation on the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski.^[5] After her promotion she became assistant professor at the same university. Here she continued her works on the critique of Marx^[6] for which she received the habilitation qualification in 1975.

Professorship

Schwan was appointed full professor at the Department of Political Science at FU Berlin in 1977. At the time, her research fields encompassed political theory, philosophy, psychology, and culture as well as theories of democracy and socialism. In 1980/81, she had a research stay at the Wilson Center for Scholars in the USA; another research stay in 1984 at the Robinson College at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; in 1998 she was appointed visiting professor at the New School for Social Research in New York. From 1993–1995, she was dean of the Political Science Faculty at FU Berlin.^[4]

In 1999, Gesine Schwan competed for the post of president of FU Berlin but was beaten by Peter Gaehtgens. In the same year, she was elected into her current position as the president of Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder).^[7]

Political life

Horst Köhler defeated Schwan and became German president in 2004. Both compete again in 2009.

Schwan belongs to the German tradition of social democratic opposition to Karl Marx theories. In September 1974, she became one of the founding members of the Seeheimer Kreis, a conservative think tank within the SPD.^[8] She became a member of the SPD Grundwertekommission (Commission for Fundamental Values) in 1977. In 1984, she was removed from this position after adverting the party's Ostpolitik for being too cozy with communist regimes and not engaging with dissidents.^[9] Rather she sought for support and dialog with those Eastern Europeans who would dare to criticize their governments.^[10] Schwan was reinstated in the Grundwertekommission in 1996. Since 2002, she presides the German-Polish Forum together with Janusz Reiter. In January 2005, the German government under Gerhard Schröder installed her as the Co-ordinator of the Federal Government for Civil Social Cooperation near to the Republic of Poland.^[4] She retained this position when the government changed to become headed by Christ Democrat Angela Merkel.

Presidential elections

On 23 May 2004, Gesine Schwan was the SPD candidate for the German presidential elections. She received 589 votes in the Bundesversammlung (Federal Assembly) but was defeated by Horst Köhler who won 604 votes from the 1205 delegates.^[11] On 26 May 2008, SPD chairman Kurt Beck announced Schwan's renewed nomination for the upcoming presidential elections in 2009.^[12] Once again she will compete with Horst Köhler, who announced his repeated candidacy on 22 May 2008.^[13]

List of works

• Die Gesellschaftskritik von Karl Marx. Philosophische und politökonomische Voraussetzungen, 1974
• Sozialismus in der Demokratie? Theorie einer konsequent sozialdemokratischen Politik, 1982
• Politik und Schuld. Die zerstörerische Macht des Schweigens, 1997. ISBN 3-596-13404-8
• Antikommunismus und Antiamerikanismus in Deutschland. Kontinuität und Wandel nach 1945, 1999

Awards and honors

• 1993 Federal cross of merits (Bundesverdienstkreuz)
• 1999 Urania-Medal Award for Particular Activities in the Scientific National Education
• 2002 1st Class Cross of Merits Award of the Medal of Merits of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz erster Klasse)
• 2004 Marion Dönhoff Award for International Agreement and Conciliation
• 2006 Honorary doctor of the European University Institute, Florence^[14]

References