Christian Democratic Union
Which political party did Vera Lengsfeld belong to from Dec 1996 to Dec 1997?
Vera Lengsfeld Vera Lengsfeld ( Sondershausen , East Germany , 4 May 1952 ) is a German politician . She was a prominent civil rights activist in East Germany and after the German reunification she first represented the Alliance 90/The Greens and then the German Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) in the Bundestag . Early life . Lengsfeld was born in Sondershausen . Her father was an officer in the Stasi , the East German secret police . After leaving school she studied Philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin . Following her studies , she worked as a lecturer and researcher at the National Institute of Philosophy in the Academy of Sciences of East Germany . From 1975 , she was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ( SED ) . After a party procedure she was transferred to the Institute for Scientific Information . In 1981 she left the academy and went to work as an editor . She became a born-again Christian in 1981 , and was active in various civic organizations in East Germany ( GDR ) . She was the co-founder of Pankow Peace Circle in the autumn of 1981 , the Environment Library Berlin ; Profession group and the Church from Below in 1986 . Their commitment included the organization of numerous events of the peace and environmental movements in the GDR , including a Peace laboratory , Peace Conference , Environment Seminar , Human Rights Seminar , Church from Below . She was a member of the Continuation Committee for the delegates meeting of the peace group members , who gathered under the title Specifically for Peace a year . She was co-organizer of the first human rights seminar held in 1986 in Berlin . Due to her public protests against the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in East Germany , she was expelled from the SED in 1983 and her profession . In the following years she earned her living as a beekeeper and translator . In 1985 she graduated with a Theology degree . In January 1988 she was arrested in advance of the demonstration in honour of Liebknecht and Luxemburg in East Berlin carrying a poster declaring Every citizen has the right to express his opinion freely and openly ( Article 27 of the Constitution of East Germany ) and detained in Berlin Hohenschönhausen prison . She was put on trial by the city district of Lichtenberg on the grounds of attempted riotous assembly and although given a custodial sentence she was instead allowed the option of leaving the GDR on a temporary visa effectively deporting her from the country . In February 1988 she went to Cambridge in the United Kingdom where she studied Philosophy of Religion at St . Johns College . On the morning of 9 November 1989 she returned to East Germany . After German reunification . After the Fall of the Berlin Wall she resumed her work as a civil rights activist and served as a member of the Constitutional Commission on the reunification of West Germany and East Germany . At this time she joined Alliance 90 , the Green Party of the GDR , and at the 1990 election was elected to the member of the GDR parliament until its dissolution on 2 October 1990 as a member of Alliance 90/The Greens , the coalition between Alliance 90 and The Greens . Then at the first election after German reunification she was elected to the Bundestag . In 1991 she protested the Gulf War by keeping quiet during her allotted speech time in the Bundestag until she was cut off . She was re-elected in the 1994 General election . However , in 1996 Alliance 90/The Greens decided to enter into alliances with the Party of Democratic Socialism , the successors to the former SED . A civil rights activist rather than a leftist , Lengsfeld together with other civil rights activists such as Guenter Nooke and Ehrhart Neubert defected to the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) . She was re-elected at the 1998 and 2002 elections as a CDU list candidate in her home state of Thuringia . However , for the 2005 election she stood in a single member constituency instead and lost her seat . For the 2009 election she ran in the Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg - Prenzlauer Berg East constituency , the only constituency in the Bundestag to be represented by her former party Alliance 90/Greens . With CDU having finished a distant fourth at the previous election she was thought to have no chance of success and in the event she finished a distant fourth , slightly increasing the CDU vote share . In August 2009 she produced election posters featuring photos emphasizing her cleavage along with a picture of Angela Merkel in a very low-cut dress , emblazoned with the slogan We have more to offer . The posters drew a great deal of attention and some criticism . They were featured on Japanese television and in Brazilian and Peruvian newspapers . Some of the posters were reportedly stolen as souvenirs according to the Agence France-Presse news agency . Lengsfeld has opposed immigration into Germany , and helped to organize the Erklärung 2018 declaration and petition in opposition to it . Personal life and Stasi observation . In 1980 she married her second husband , the mathematician and poet Knud Wollenberger with whom she has two sons . Wollenberger was born in Denmark and enjoyed travel privileges . Unbeknownst to Lengsfeld , he had been a Stasi informant since 1972 , and during their marriage he continued to file reports on her activities . It is not known whether the Stasi specifically ordered him to approach Lengsfeld . They divorced in 1992 after his Stasi involvement had come to light . Lengsfeld later said that she felt betrayed that anyone could marry or have children under such circumstances . He later explained to her that he , as a Jew , supported the GDR since he saw it as a response to Auschwitz . She forgave him in 2000 when he was gravely ill . Lengsfelds father retired from the Stasi in 1986 rather than obey an order to break with his daughter ; in 1988 he publicly took her side . Her son Philip is treasurer of the CDU parliamentary group of the district assembly of Berlins Pankow district . Published works . - Virus der Heuchler . Innenansicht aus Stasiakten , Espresso/Elef.Press , Berlin 1992 , - Mein Weg zur Freiheit . Von nun an ging’s bergauf . Langen Müller , Berlin 2002 , . - Neustart ! Was sich in Politik und Gesellschaft ändern muss . Umdenken lohnt . Freiheit und Fairness statt Gleichheit und Gerechtigkeit . Berlin 2006 , . - Ich wollte frei sein . Die Mauer , die Stasi , die Revolution . Herbig Verlag , München 2011 , .