Early beginnings Wieczorek-Zeul is a prominent figure of the Social Democrats'
left wing and is often called "Red Heidi". From 1974 to 1977, she was the first woman to chair the
Jusos (Young Socialists), the youth organisation of the SPD. In this capacity, she represented the party's then 350,000 members who were under 35. During her time as Juso chief, she drew headlines in 1975 by calling for limit of $2,000 a month on personal income. After the resignation of party leader
Björn Engholm in 1993, she stood for the Social Democrats' candidacy for the
chancellor's office, but lost to
Rudolf Scharping. Scharping won 40% of all votes cast by the party members, Schröder 33% and Wieczorek-Zeul 27%. It was the first time the party members were asked to elect the new party leader directly. From 1993 to 2005, Wieczorek-Zeul served as deputy chairwoman of the SPD, under the leadership of successive chairmen Rudolf Scharping (1993–1995),
Oskar Lafontaine (1995–1999),
Gerhard Schröder (1999–2004) and
Franz Müntefering (2004–2005). From 2009 to 2013, Wieczorek-Zeul served on the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and as spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group on the Subcommittee on the United Nations, International Organizations and Globalization.
Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, 1998–2009 First term When
Gerhard Schröder (SPD) became
Chancellor following the
1998 elections, Wieczorek-Zeul was appointed
Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the time, her appointment was seen as underlining the importance attached to the issue by the Social Democrat/Green government. In her capacity as minister, Wieczorek-Zeul served as Member of the Broadcasting Board of
Deutsche Welle; as Member of Board of Supervisory Directors of
KfW; and as Member of the Board of Governors of the
World Bank. She also participated in the preparations for the
25th G8 summit in 1999 and the
33rd G8 summit in 2007, both of which were hosted by Germany. In her first years in office, she worked merged the 'Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung (DSE)' and the 'Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft (CDG)' to create
InWEnt, an institution with worldwide operations in the field of bilateral
development cooperation and international cooperation, with a focus on
capacity building. During a meeting at
Utstein Abbey on the west coast of Norway in 1999, Wieczorek-Zeul co-founded (along with fellow development ministers
Eveline Herfkens,
Clare Short and
Hilde Frafjord Johnson) the Utstein Group, a partnership of donor countries working to make the UN development system more effective. In an effort to make it easier for antiwar critics to back Schröder’s decision to send German
Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in 2001, Wieczorek-Zeul and Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer announced a 256 million marks ($115 million) humanitarian-aid package for Afghan refugees. In October 2001, she joined Schröder on a state visit to Pakistan for meetings with
President Pervez Musharraf, where they revived economic assistance to the country in return for its support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and in light of incoming refugee flows from Afghanistan. In 2004, she co-hosted an international donors' conference on Afghanistan in Berlin, during which Afghanistan received more than $8 billion in pledges for the years 2005 to 2007. By 2007, she called extension for the international armed forces in the country. In February 2003, Wieczorek-Zeul was one out of three cabinet members taking part in a march against the
Iraq War in Berlin. On 16 August 2004, at the 100th anniversary of the start of the
Herero and Namaqua Genocide, Wieczorek-Zeul, on behalf of the German government, officially apologized for the first time and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring, "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time." In addition, she admitted that the massacres were equivalent to genocide. She ruled out paying special compensation, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia. Wieczorek-Zeul represented the German government at the funeral services for former
Prime Minister of Japan Keizō Obuchi on 8 June 2000 and (alongside Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer) for
Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Đinđić on 16 March 2003.
Second term Wieczorek-Zeul kept her office after Schröder's defeat in the
2005 elections and served in the first government
Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 until 2009. Wieczorek-Zeul initiated the EU's target of increasing its
official development assistance (ODA) from 0.51 percent by 2010 to 0.7 percent of the GDP by 2015. During her time in office, German ODA increased regularly and reached 13.9 billion US$ in disbursements in 2008, taking it to 0.38 percent of GNI. In October 2007, Wieczorek-Zeul joined Merkel on her first official trip to Africa – including stops in Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa –, during which they met with
Nelson Mandela and
Graça Machel,
John Kufuor and
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, among others. She also visited Kenya's sprawling slum at Mathare 4A, Kasarani District and virtually pitied Mathare 4A primary school, which had been invaded and harassed by squatters. Today, the old school has been replaced by a new Heidemarie (formally, Mathare 4A) Primary School, courtesy of the German Government through KfW Entwicklungsbank and the government of Kenya. On 26 January 2009, Wieczorek-Zeul and Environment Minister
Sigmar Gabriel chaired the conference which led to the founding of the
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Under her leadership, Germany joined Austria and Switzerland in July 2009 in canceling €450 million ($630 million) in state export-loan guarantees for Turkey’s
Ilısu Dam because Turkish plans to resettle towns and safeguard cultural treasures were not sufficient to meet
World Bank standards. Wieczorek-Zeul also served on the Executive Board of the
Socialist International (SI).
Role in international organizations After Merkel formally launched the World Bank Group’s three-year Gender Action Plan in February 2007, Wieczorek-Zeul served as honorary co-chair (alongside Danny Leipziger) of the High Level Advisory Council on Women's Economic Empowerment and as Official Champion of the World Bank Group Gender Action Plan. Amid a 2007 leadership crisis at the Bank, Wieczorek-Zeul was a leading figure in the downfall of
Paul Wolfowitz as president of the organization. At the time, Germany’s role was central partly because it held the
EU presidency and also chaired the bank’s 24-nation Executive Board. Wolfowitz was later replaced by
Robert Zoellick. Alongside Chancellor Merkel, Wieczorek-Zeul co-hosted the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria replenishment conference in Berlin in September 2007. During the conference, donor countries promised nearly $10 billion to the Fund for 2008–2010. In 2008, Wieczorek-Zeul served as Special Envoy of the
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the International Conference on Financing for Development in
Doha, Qatar. Between 2008 and 2009, she was part of a High-Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems, which had been launched to help strengthen health systems in the 49 poorest countries in the world and was chaired by UK Prime Minister
Gordon Brown and Robert Zoellick. Also between 2008 and 2009, Wieczorek-Zeul served as member of the
Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, which was chaired by author and Nobel Laureate economist
Joseph E. Stiglitz. The commission had the aim of proposing necessary reforms in the world financial system that would prevent another event like the
2008 financial crisis. ==Life after politics==