1. Gesine Schwan is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
16 Facts About Gesine Schwan
1. 2.
In 1969, Schwan married her first husband, Professor Alexander Schwan, with whom she had two children and who died in 1989.
3.
In 2004, Gesine Schwan celebrated her second wedding with longtime companion Peter Eigen in Berlin.
4.
Gesine Schwan is a former World Bank manager as well as a founder and current Chair of the Advisory Council of Transparency International.
5.
Gesine Schwan is very engaged in German and Polish mutual understanding and therefore supports, in numerous ways, the work of the Freya von Moltke Stiftung for the New Kreisau.
6.
In 1962, Gesine Schwan graduated from the bilingual Franzosisches Gymnasium, a German-French secondary school in Berlin.
7.
Gesine Schwan was appointed full professor at the Department of Political Science at FU Berlin in 1977.
8.
In 1999, Gesine Schwan competed for the post of president of FU Berlin, but was defeated by Peter Gaehtgens.
9.
Gesine Schwan belongs to the German tradition of social democratic opposition to Karl Marx's theories.
10.
Gesine Schwan became a member of the SPD Grundwertekommission in 1977.
11.
Gesine Schwan retained this position when the government changed and became headed by Christian Democrat Angela Merkel.
12.
On 15 September 2010, Gesine Schwan supported the new initiative Spinelli Group in the European Parliament, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union.
13.
On 23 May 2004, Gesine Schwan was the SPD candidate for the German presidential election.
14.
Gesine Schwan received 589 votes in the Bundesversammlung but was defeated by Horst Kohler who won 604 votes from the 1205 delegates.
15.
On 26 May 2008, SPD chairman Kurt Beck announced Gesine Schwan's renewed nomination for the upcoming presidential elections in 2009.
16.
Ahead of the 2009 presidential election, Gesine Schwan was criticized by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, Marianne Birthler, for statements on the political regime of East Germany.