Heide Simonis
Former Prime Minister has died
Heide Simonis died at the age of 80.
© imago/STAR MEDIA
The former Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein Heide Simonis died in Kiel at the age of 80.
Heide Simonis, the former prime minister of Schleswig-Holstein, has died. This was confirmed by the SPD state chairman Serpil Midyatli (47), according to media reports.
Simonis had just celebrated her 80th birthday last weekend. She had Parkinson’s disease, as she had made public in 2014.
First woman to head a federal state
The SPD politician was the first woman to be elected head of a federal state in Schleswig-Holstein in 1993. “In general, I’ve been very fortunate to be a pioneer of the future role of women in politics,” Simonis said in an interview with the “Kieler Nachrichten” in 2018.
Her re-election to the state parliament failed in 2005 when a dissenter refused her vote in four rounds.
Participation in “Let’s Dance”
After her political career, Simonis took over the presidency of UNICEF Germany from 2005 to 2008. In order to generate awareness for the aid project, she even took part in the television show “Let’s Dance” in 2006.
In 2014 she was awarded honorary citizenship by the state of Schleswig-Holstein – again as the first woman. In 2018 she received the Willy Brandt Medal, the party’s highest award, from the SPD.