Gabriele Gottwald

Gabriele Gottwald (born 8 July 1955) is a German politician ("Die Linke" ("The Left")), and currently (2019) a member of the Berlin state parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus).

Before reunification she served between 1983 and 1985 as a member of the West German Bundestag (national parliament), at that time representing the Green Party.

[1][2] On her first day at the Bundestag she arrived on her bicycle and caused the janitor consternation by insisting on bringing it through the security gate because she was concerned that if she left it outside it might be stolen.

[3] Gabriele Gottwald was born in Wettringen (Steinfurt), a small country town near the Dutch border north of Münster.

[8] Gottwald resigned her parliamentary seat on 31 March 1985, reflecting the party's policy (known as "Abgeordnetenrotation", and subsequently abandoned) of sharing duties and responsibilities.

It would have been highly unusual at that time for a West German court to disbelieve the sworn evidence of a policeman, especially where the accused was a known peace activist.

The young police trainee was himself under increased pressure because he had recently faced a temporary suspension following a conviction for driving while over the legal blood-alcohol limit.

His bad conscience over Gottwald's falsely based conviction never left him, however, and he became convinced that under the pressure of groupthink such cases remained far from unusual.

Gabriele Gottwald, 2021