Wieland was born in
Berlin on 9 March 1948. He grew up in a Protestant family in
Frankfurt where he completed school with the
Abitur. He studied law first in Frankfurt On 2 June he took part in a
Außerparlamentarische Opposition (APO) demonstration where he witnessed the
killing of Benno Ohnesorg by a policeman. Wieland said he identified with Ohnesorg as the attack could have happened to anyone. In 1978 to 1980, he defended
Fritz Teufel,
Political career In 1978, Wieland was a founding member of
The Greens in Berlin, then named
Alternative Liste für Demokratie und Umweltschutz (AL). The AL entered the Berlin city parliament in 1987; Wieland was a member until 1989, and again for the Greens from 1991 to 2004, often as leader of the faction. He was the voice of criticism from the opposition of the grand coalition of mayor
Eberhard Diepgen (CDU) and (SPD). After that coalition broke in 2001, he served as senator of justice from June 2001 to January 2002, under mayor
Klaus Wowereit, until Wowereit formed a red-red coalition. In September 2004, Wieland was a candidate for the Greens in Brandenburg. He was a member of the
Bundestag from 2005 to 2013, mostly interested in interior politics and security.
Memberships Wieland was a member of several organisations. In Berlin, he was on the board of the Deutsche Gesellschaft (German Society) and the Deutsche Vereinigung für Parlamentsfragen (German association for parliamentary questions). He served as vice president of the Förderkreis Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, for the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. He was member of the foundation council of the Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (
Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship). He was a member of the
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in
Kassel, maintaining the graves of soldiers of the World Wars.
Personal life Wieland was married to a judge; the couple had two daughters. He said in a 2003 interview that he had no intentions of leaving Berlin because of the family, and therefore had no ambitions for national politics with
Bonn as the seat of the Bundestag. Wieland died on 5 December 2023, at age 75, after a serious illness. == References ==