Gabriele Schöttler

Gabriele Schöttler is a former East German nurse who switched to political activism, joining the Social Democratic Party during the final weeks of 1989, and then successfully switching to mainstream politics following reunification the next year. In the course of a varied political career she served between 1999 and 2001 as the Berlin senator for labour, social affairs and women under Mayors Diepgen and Wowereit.

Life and career Provenance and early years Gabriele Schöttler was born, a few months after the 1953 uprising, in Zehdenick, a small town and an important centre for brick production, set in the marshy flatlands roughly 50 km to the north of Berlin. She completed her school education at an East German "Polytechnic Secondary School" in 1970 and then transferred to the Medical College and Berlin-Buch where between 1970 and 1974 she trained and qualified for a nursing career. She then worked as a nurse at the Neurology Clinic in Berlin-Buch between 1974 and 1977. Schöttler continued to work at Oranienburg in the training department at "VEB Elektromontage" between 1984 and 1991, but now with an "Ingenieur-Ökonomin" degree to her name. The next year her participation in the Berlin state election became particularly memorable, thanks to the poster accompanying her campaign slogan, "Gabi - stronger step for social justice" ("... starker Auftritt für soziale Gerechtigkeit"). The poster was a pointed response to the campaign poster of Mayor Diepgen, her senatorial boss but political opponent in the governing coalition: Diepgen in his own election publicity had used an image featuring running shoes, to illustrate his energetic approach to his senatorial and mayoral responsibilities. The image accompanying Schöttler's own slogan simply showed an elegant foot and ankle encased in an exceptionally high stiletto shoe, of which the spike was piercing the toe section of a running shoe containing - the viewer was presumably intended to infer - a foot. Schöttler's poster-slogan combination caught the attention of the national media. Gabriele Schöttler is a small woman, and much of the ensuing press reporting centred not on her agenda for social justice in Berlin, but on the nature and extent of her personal shoe collection. Reassuringly, it was reported that she owned "nowhere near as many shoes as Imelda Marcos", but there were nevertheless around 40 pairs (including plenty of shoes and winter boots with very high heels).

Despite the poster she retained her senatorial portfolio in Mayor Diepgen's following the 1999 election even though the election had delivered a small reduction in the SPD vote share, leading to a reduction in the number of senatorial seats allocated to it in the city's senate coalition. She also retained it when Mayor Diepgen was succeeded as mayor by her SPD colleague Klaus Wowerweit following the Berlin Bank scandal. However, the new administration proved unstable due to the underlying balance of seats in the Berlin parliament, and when fresh state elections were called for October 2001 she resigned her senate seat. Once the results were declared, it turned out that she had, in addition, failed to retain her seat in the city parliament,

After politics? Between 2002 and 2006 Schöttler headed up the "Sanssouci Business Academy", a recently opened private sector business school in Potsdam. Under her leadership the academy specialised in organising seminars for leaders from business and trades unions.

District mayor In August 2005 it was reported that the party had approached her, requesting that she should apply to become the party candidate for the post of local mayor in Treptow-Köpenick, in political terms a district of Berlin with a rich and long-standing socialist tradition. Beyond her obvious qualities, there were hints that the party hierarchy had been underwhelmed by the number and/or quality of the candidates who had already applied to the party district association. The deadline for applications was still two months away, however. Schöttler's reaction was cautiously positive, "if that is what the comrades want". By the time the reports appeared, it turned out that several members of the party district association had already nominated her as the party's candidate to succeed the long-standing and popular (but by this point three years past the normal retirement age) district mayor, Klaus Ulbricht. Within the district council she also took a leadership role in respect of finance, economics, arts and culture, personnel matters and regulatory affairs. Gabriele Schöttler served out her full term as district mayor, remaining in post till 27 October 2009. A particular high point during her term of office was the 800 anniversary celebrations for Köpenick. Following her retirement it was reported that she remained engaged, in particular through her support for the welfare oriented "Köpenick social foundation" ("Sozialstiftung Köpenick").

Personal Gabriele Schöttler is married with a son, born in the mid 1970s.

Asked in 2009 how she spent her spare time she replied: "That belongs to my family". She added that she likes to spend time in her garden, and takes particular pleasure in reading crime-novels "provided it is not already clear from the beginning who the murderer was, as with Columbo".