Regine Hildebrandt

Regine Hildebrandt (née Radischewski; 26 April 1941 – 26 November 2001) was a German biologist and politician (Social Democratic Party of Germany).

Life

Early years

Wartime in Germany Regine Radischewski was born in Berlin during the war, the second of her parents' two recorded children.

Her mother would later own a small tobacconist shop. Regine Hildebrandt at SPD-convention in Nuremberg in November 2001, a few days before her death.

Growing up The war ended in May 1945 and the family ended up back in Berlin. For the first five or six years of her schooling she attended a school in a western occupation zone of the city ("West Berlin"), but as the political division between the Soviet occupation zone and the western occupation zones became more stark and, it seemed, more permanent, her parents opted on her behalf for a school in the Soviet zone in what had by now become known as East Berlin. The family home was in the city centre along Bernauer Straße ("Bernau Street") which formed the (initially hard to spot) political border between East Berlin and West Berlin, and afforded Regine a ring-side seat in the cold wall drama until September 1961 when the family were forcibly relocated in connection with the building of the Berlin Wall.

Middle years

The student From 1959 to 1964, she studied biology at the Humboldt University in East Berlin.

She had never joined the Free German Youth (FDJ/Freie Deutsche Jugend), which was in effect the youth wing of the young country's ruling SED party. Her failure to join seems to have been a result of timetable clashes involving her commitment to singing in the church choir. During this period she had numerous research papers published.

A political decision had been taken to convert East German currency into western Marks at a one-for one rate (except in respect of very large amounts), and Hildebrandt's priority as a government minister was tackling growing unemployment in east Germany, and minister-president Manfred Stolpe prepared to form a "grand coalition" with the centre-right CDU party. Hildebrand was already seriously ill and had strongly campaigned for an alternative alliance, with the left-wing PDS.

The Hildebrandts and the state prime minister Manfred Stolpe had known one another since the 1960s through their church connections, though they had not been aware at every level of Stolpe's complicated and possibly at times collaborative relationship with the Ministry for State Security during the years of the dictatorship. After her resignation from the government Hildebrand and Stolpe would continue to treasure one another's friendship, and remain political allies, until Hildebrandt's death in 2001.

Nationally in December 1999 and again in November 2001, a few weeks before she died, Hildebrand topped the polls in the elections to the national executive of the Social Democratic Party.

Death In July 1996 it became known that Regine Hildebrandt had breast cancer. She died at age 60 on 26 November 2001 in Woltersdorf, Brandenburg.

Honours and awards 1993: Gustav Heinemann Citizenship Prize 1993: Hamm Brücher Medal 1997: "Golden Hen" 2000: Fritz Bauer Prize 2001: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany