(de-news.net) – Rita Süssmuth, one of the most influential women in postwar German politics and a senior figure of the Christian Democratic Union, has died at the age of 88. Her career combined academic distinction with sustained public service, including cabinet responsibility – from 1985 to 1988 – and a decade as President of the German Bundestag – from 1988 to 1998.
In a condolence message, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier characterized Süssmuth as an exceptional democrat whose political practice was defined by intellectual leadership, perseverance, and civic courage. He emphasized that her forward-looking approach and personal authority made her a role model, particularly for women, and helped translate the principle of gender equality into tangible progress over many years. According to Steinmeier, her long-standing engagement in academic councils, commissions, and advisory bodies consistently focused on improving the compatibility of family and professional life and on advancing women into leadership roles. He also recalled that, while serving as Minister for Youth, Family, and Health, she successfully expanded the ministry’s remit to include women’s affairs, becoming the first federal minister to hold this responsibility. Her influence, he noted, extended to enlightened approaches to HIV/AIDS policy, reforms of parliamentary practice, and early advocacy of a modern immigration framework, all underpinned by a political ethos marked by warmth, humor, and humanism.
Tributes from the current parliamentary leadership echoed this assessment. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner described Süssmuth as one of the Federal Republic’s most significant political figures and as a formative thinker in women’s and family policy. She underlined that Süssmuth remained actively committed until late in life to strengthening women’s representation in parliaments and that her energy and determination left a lasting impression on colleagues and successors alike. Klöckner equally highlighted Süssmuth’s pioneering HIV/AIDS policy, which rejected stigmatization and laid the groundwork for effective prevention in Germany, an approach shaped by empathy, respect for individual dignity, and a value framework informed by her Catholic faith.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz portrayed Süssmuth as a guiding figure for German democracy, noting her exemplary commitment to equality, tolerance, and an open society, as well as her enduring impact on the political effectiveness of women.
Before entering party politics, Süssmuth was a professor of education. After joining the CDU in 1981, she was appointed Federal Minister for Youth, Family, and Health in 1985, under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. During her tenure, parental benefits were introduced as a universal entitlement, child-rearing periods were recognized in pension law, and child tax allowances were substantially increased, reflecting her emphasis on genuine choice between family and professional life. Her subsequent decade as President of the Bundestag consolidated her reputation as a reform-oriented parliamentary leader.
Beyond institutional roles, Süssmuth was an early advocate for reform of Germany’s abortion law and a prominent supporter of people living with HIV/AIDS, guided by the principle that policy should address disease rather than those affected by it. She later served as honorary chair of the German AIDS Foundation. In the mid-1990s, she also became the first high-profile CDU politician to argue openly that Germany should acknowledge itself as a country of immigration, underscoring her readiness to challenge orthodoxies in pursuit of a more inclusive society.