Schwan, Gesine

Gesine Schwan

"I didn't regret for a moment not becoming President of Germany. It's actually very pleasant when one is able to remain a private person," she said in a radio interview half a year after standing as a candidate. Nevertheless, on account of her biography and her previous work, the dedicated political scientist remains committed to the process of European integration.

During the election she could only "win", especially because it was clear that she had no chance against the candidate of the CDU/CSU (Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union) and the FDP (Free Democrats), Horst Köhler. In the public eye at that time she gave the impression of being a light-hearted, cordial and clever woman, a female politician who was simply different – namely human. She gained 589 of 1,204 possible votes, 40 more than were to be expected from the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and the Grüne (Green Party).

Professor Dr Gesine Schwan (born in 1943) received her doctorate in 1970 on the political Philosophy of Liberty according to Marx. She was assistant professor at the Free University of Berlin and qualified as a lecturer in 1975, teaching in Washington, Cambridge, Warsaw and New York. Her main areas of research are Marxism and socialism, democratic theory and questions of political culture. From 1977 to 1984 she was a member of the Commission for Fundamental Values of the Executive Committee of the SPD (Social Democratic Party). She left the panel because she was not in agreement with the fact that her party made so many concessions to the dictatorships in the Eastern Block. Since October 1999 she has been the President of the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt on the Oder.

Leftist middleclass

Gesine Schwan attended the elite French grammar school in Berlin for nine years. At home she wasn't allowed to speak in the Berlin dialect: after all her father was a school inspector – in other words, upper middleclass. In the Nazi era he was among those who resisted. She is Catholic and still today firmly maintains that religious belief is one of the indispensable accoutrements a human being has. With her fellow students at the Free University in Berlin she shared in the protests in the Sixties against the "stuffiness under the gowns" and against narrow-mindedness. Protesting against injustice is part and parcel of her life. But she has never been a feminist, she says. "I'm sorry but I have never been disadvantaged because of being a woman."

When she stood against Horst Köhler as a candidate in May 2004 it became obvious that here a "leftist" type of middleclassness was standing against a conservative, rightist type. Gesine Schwan lives in the fine suburb of Berlin-Nikolassee, surrounded by books; the presence of a piano shows that there is music in the house. Her world is not trimmed to globalisation and having to readjust oneself quicker and quicker. Again and again she has advocated a different attitude: "At 40 one does not need to have achieved everything. One doesn't need to retire at 60. There's no need for the age pyramid we have in our heads to become a threat."

Understanding democracy

In her books and lectures one often finds the terms "trust", "openness", "truth" and "belief". She is convinced that "authoritarian personalities, who subordinate their sense of judgement to unquestioned authorities, have neither confidence in themselves nor in other people and thus also no trust in the future". Neither they nor people who "pursue their own particular interests without the slightest misgivings, exploit their positions of power and care nothing about fairness" can build up and secure a democracy. "Trust is the cultural sustenance without which democracy withers away." That is one of her core sentences.

But she goes even further than that and questions the "colonialisation of all areas of life through the principle of economic competition". The absolute supremacy of the market and competition, the "subordination of all areas to the logic of the economic market", negates the possibility of "free political exchange; the same is true for subordination to the bureaucracy of an authoritarian state". If no alternatives exist any more then there is nothing more to discuss. "That's where politics stops."

The Polish soul

Gesine Schwan is as at home in Poland as she is in Germany. She speaks Polish, she supported the foundation of "her" European University on the German-Polish border from the very beginning; and she has received prizes for international understanding – from both sides. Today 5,000 students attend the Viadrina University, 1,500 from Poland.

In November 2004 the German Government offered her the position of a coordinator for German-Polish relations. A more suitable person couldn't have been chosen. She knows that establishing good relationships with this neighbouring country requires time – it will take another 20 to 30 years until one can get on together as easily as with France. In his book Meine lieben Deutschen (My dear Germans), the Director of the Collegium Polonicum, Krzysztof Wojchiechowski, who teaches at the Viadrina describes her in this way: "She is an attractive women and is spontaneous in a fairly un-German way. She kisses everyone when she meets them and then again when she says goodbye."

The dream of a fulfilled life

"When everything goes too smoothly I'm the first person who wants to get things moving again," she admits in a self-portrait. When asked what her dream is she describes her image of a fulfilled life: swimming in lakes, glasses of red wine, sitting in the garden, a visit from the children.

But her dream soon takes on a political tone: "What really makes me happy is when people get together to do something for the sake of a particular cause – or for other people. Life becomes much more interesting when one concerns oneself with other people." And of course the dream must also include her Viadrina. Here she can work towards a possible utopia of the future: Europe.