Government
Love with concessions: Liaisons in the political world
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, r) and his wife Britta Ernst celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in December 2023. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
Berlin’s Prime Minister Kai Wegner and Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch are making their relationship public today. They are not the first couple in politics.
Olaf Scholz and Britta Ernst (both SPD)
When the current Chancellor moved from federal politics to Hamburg City Hall as Governing Mayor in 2011, his wife had to withdraw from state politics. The long-standing member of the parliament then initially worked for the SPD parliamentary group in Berlin and later became state minister in Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg.
“Politically, however, I think it is justifiable for spouses or partners to belong to a joint government, even if part of the couple leads that government,” she explained at the time. In December 2023, Scholz and Ernst celebrated their silver wedding anniversary.
Oskar Lafontaine and Sahra Wagenknecht (both leftists at the time)
At the end of 2011, the relationship between the then Saarland parliamentary group leader and the economic policy spokeswoman for the Bundestag faction became public. Two years earlier, rumors about the alleged liaison between the two were making the rounds. At the time, “Lafo” was still the left-wing party leader and he had just given up his position as chairman of the Bundestag faction. Both have now left the party.
Boris Pistorius and Doris Schröder-Köpf (both SPD)
In 2016, the then Interior Minister in Lower Saxony and the member of the state parliament, who also held the honorary position of Lower Saxony’s integration officer, became a couple. The relationship between the current Federal Defense Minister and the ex-wife of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) lasts until 2022.
Sven Lehmann and Arndt Klocke (both Greens)
When Lehmann took over the co-state chairmanship of his party in North Rhine-Westphalia from Klocke in 2010, the two were already a couple. Klocke is moving to the Düsseldorf state parliament as deputy parliamentary group leader. Lehmann is now the federal government’s queer commissioner.
Frauke Petry and Marcus Pretzell (both AfD at the time)
When the AfD chairwoman made her love affair public in 2015, some party members wondered whether the then North Rhine-Westphalia state leader might influence her political decisions. They married in 2016. Both have now left the AfD.
Christian Ude and Edith von Walser-Ude (both SPD)
When the future mayor of Munich moved into the city council in 1990, his wife left the body after twelve years. She was previously deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group and was even considered a possible city leader herself. She then becomes a photojournalist.