Daniel Wesener

Wesener was born and grew up in Hamburg. After graduating from the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium and completing community service, he moved to Berlin in 1996. He studied history and art history at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the College of William & Mary in the United States, and was a scholarship holder of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst. He finished his studies without a degree and worked in the office of Christian Ströbele, member of the Bundestag for the Greens, from 2003 to 2011.[1][2]

Wesener has been a member of the Greens since 2001. In 2006, he was elected to the municipal council of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, where he co-chaired the Greens group with Antje Kapek until 2011.[1][2]

In March 2011, Wesener was elected co-chairman of the Berlin Greens alongside Bettina Jarasch.[3] The two led the coalition negotiations with the SPD under Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit after the 2011 Berlin state election.[4] Wesener and Jarasch were re-elected as co-leaders in March 2013, achieving an unusually broad support among delegates at the party conference. Wesener won 95.4% of votes, the largest majority for any leader up to that point.[5] He was again re-elected in 2015 with 92% of the vote.[6]

Wesener is considered a representative of the left-wing of the Greens. In 2013, he identified himself as a libertarian leftist, and stated that he had stayed distant from party politics for a long time. He was motivated to join the Greens during the "patriotism debate" in the CDU in 2001, fearing a "sociopolitical rollback".[7]

In October 2015, Wesener was nominated as part of a four-member team of lead candidates for the 2016 Berlin state election alongside Bettina Jarasch, Antje Kapek, and Ramona Pop.[8][9] Wesener was placed fourth on the state-wide party list, and was elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus. In the Greens faction, he was parliamentary managing officer and spokesman for culture, budget, and finance.[2]

Wesener was again fourth on the Greens list for the 2021 Berlin state election,[10] and was re-elected.[11] He was subsequently appointed Senator for Finance in the Giffey senate, taking over the role from outgoing SPD senator Matthias Kollatz.[2][12] In accordance with the principle of separation of mandates, Wesener resigned from the Abgeordnetenhaus at the beginning of 2022, and was succeeded by Catrin Wahlen.[13]

Wesener lives with his partner Dirk Behrendt in Kreuzberg.

• "Daniel Wesner". Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). Retrieved 24 January 2022.
• "Senator Daniel Wesener". Berlin.de (in German). Retrieved 24 January 2022.
• "Daniel Wesener". Greens Faction Berlin (in German). 20 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
• "Daniel Wesener". daniel-wesener.berlin (in German). Retrieved 24 January 2022.