Memorial Page for Inge Wettig-Danielmeier

Inge Wettig-Danielmeier (born 1 October 1936 in Heilbronn; died 20 May 2026) was a German social scientist and SPD politician. She served in the Lower Saxony Landtag and in the German Bundestag, chaired the Working Group of Social Democratic Women and was treasurer of the SPD from 1991 to 2007. Her political work centred on education, equality, women's self-determination and the financial capacity of her party.

Education and the second-chance route

Wettig-Danielmeier was born in Heilbronn and grew up in Einbeck in Lower Saxony. After middle school, commercial school and office work, she trained as a foreign-language correspondent and interpreter for English and Spanish. In 1960 she completed the Abitur through the second-chance education route. She then studied social sciences in Wilhelmshaven, at Antioch College in Ohio and at the University of Göttingen. In 1966 she graduated as a Diplom-Sozialwirtin.

Göttingen and state politics

Wettig-Danielmeier joined the SPD in 1959. In Göttingen she gained her first parliamentary experience in the district council before entering the Lower Saxony Landtag in 1972. She served there until 1990 and became especially known for work on education and higher education. For her, education was not a technical administrative field, but a question of advancement, participation and democratic independence. That line remained visible later in federal politics.

Women's politics and the quota

From 1981 to 1992 Wettig-Danielmeier chaired the Working Group of Social Democratic Women. In that role she was one of the important voices behind the SPD quota decision. On 30 August 1988 the party congress in Münster decided that party offices and mandates should be filled at least 40 percent each by women and men. The decision was contested, but it changed the composition of political bodies over the long term.

Bundestag and self-determination

At the first all-German federal election in 1990 Wettig-Danielmeier entered the German Bundestag for Göttingen; she remained a member until 2005. There she continued to work on equality issues. The SPD and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation especially name her role in the cross-party compromise on abortion law in the 1990s. In her biography, this point stands for the attempt to bring self-determination, legal settlement and parliamentary majorities together.

Treasurer of the SPD

In 1991 Wettig-Danielmeier became the first woman to serve as SPD treasurer. She held the office until 2007. Her term included the return and renovation of party buildings after German reunification, the reorganisation of the SPD's business holdings and the construction of the Willy Brandt House in Berlin. The Friends of the Willy Brandt House later also honoured her as co-founder and long-time chair of the association that opened the party headquarters as a place for culture and encounter.

Farewell

Inge Wettig-Danielmeier died on 20 May 2026 after a long illness at the age of 89. The SPD mourned a politician who did not treat equality only as a programme, but anchored it in party rules, parliamentary work and organisational responsibility. Her career shows how political change can also grow through statutes, finances, buildings, education work and persistent committee work.