Roswitha Wiesheu is a career woman, wife and mother.
In the interview, the 64-year-old explains how she managed to be so successful and at the same time stay with herself.
Zolling
- she made a career - as a mother and in professional life: Roswitha Wiesheu (64) is an absolute role model - for all women, for everyone.
In the FT interview, she reports how she managed to be so successful and at the same time stay with herself.
Ms. Wiesheu, in 2014 you received the Silver Constitutional Medal for your educational initiative “Children Philosophize”. What is this initiative about?
The educational initiative “Children philosophize - how life succeeds” started in 2004. At that time, I demanded, and still do, a new ethical social and educational policy direction.
Children and adolescents must be equipped with skills that prepare them for the complexity and speed of the current and future society.
This includes meaning orientation, value formation and the ability to engage in dialogue, which develop in common philosophizing, i.e. in deeper reflection.
From the initiative at that time, the Academy for Philosophical Education and Value Dialog has emerged today. What is the aim of this academy?
It pursues the goal of translating democratic maturity and attitudes into concrete education and training programs.
Over the years, the main participants in the Academy's comprehensive advanced training program have been women, who train their courage to think for themselves and the strength of their own thoughts.
I perceive that women today very consciously determine the conceptual foundations of their lives and take responsibility for independent action.
Today it is women who “philosophize” and thereby clarify the water table of their democratic self-determination.
Originally it was more of a male domain.
Are women on the right track when it comes to equality?
Women today are self-confident and are fighting determinedly for the long-needed improvement in the allocation of career opportunities in government and business.
In my opinion, the image of the family has also changed for the better.
Mothers and fathers are far more equally responsible for raising children than they used to be.
Likewise, there is more agreement on common planning of living together.
So I think women in Germany are well on their way to self-alignment.
You are the mother of two - once small - children, you are the wife of a successful man, the initiator and initiator of successful educational initiatives and projects: have you always been able to combine that? Where did you reach your limits?
I have given myself space for my projects and tried to use them sensibly.
I am originally a graduate economist and worked as a speaker at the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich.
After my marriage and with two small children in Zolling, I was no longer able to do my job.
There was no home office yet.
So I looked around and found out what I can do in the specific environment and what is compatible with my situation as the mother and wife of a busy politician.
This is how my first project came about, the all-day facility “Zollinger Kinderstüberl”, an educational initiative by like-minded women.
At the same time, I fulfilled a childhood dream and completed a two-year additional course in philosophy and education at the Jesuit University of Philosophy in Munich.
This was an enormous challenge.
As a rule, I learned at night, and many seminars started without me because I simply didn't have the time to be there on time.
How did your family feel that you were looking after your career at the same time?
My children thought it was great, according to the motto: Mom has to study too, not just us.
And how did you continue after your additional studies?
After graduating, my spiritual and professional home was first the Vhs Moosburg, then the Domberg Freising, the Kardinal-Döpfner-Haus, where I gave philosophical / theological seminars and evening courses for many years.
In dealing with the philosophical content and based on the experiences in everyday pedagogical life in the nursery, it became increasingly clear to me that our society needs a future in mutual dialogue and binding values for a new “we”.
I had the idea that in-depth reflection and questions, philosophizing, should be anchored and implemented sustainably in educational concepts as a common, lifelike and natural activity.
The "start-up" children philosophize was born and has been very successful as a continuing education academy for teachers and educators and for young people in vocational orientation for over 15 years.
All projects were full of work, sometimes overwhelming, but also extremely exciting, and I was always lucky to find very competent and appreciative colleagues and employees.
It was sometimes difficult to make the concerns and objectives of the projects understandable to public decision-makers and to get positive support for them.
But I'm grateful that in the end everything turned out the way it should be, and not always just as I might have planned it ...
Did you found the Kinderstüberl in Zolling, the first all-day facility in the Freising district, with the aim of giving women and mothers more flexibility and independence?
Yes, of course, although we first noticed the plight of single mothers back then.
The desire for comprehensive all-day care for everyone only established itself over time.
The Kinderstüberl was founded in 1994, and we were pioneers not only in setting up the after-school care center, but also in the pedagogical concept.
My colleague at the time, Resi Seibold, wanted to use the facility to develop an integration concept for the many Turkish families in Zolling.
In addition to highly qualified specialists, the pedagogical team also comprised six mothers, three of whom were Turkish.
Wearing a headscarf was not a problem, by the way.
Over the years, everyone was happy to take advantage of the care offer, provided there was space.
There were always waiting times.
How much did your own experiences play a role in this?
My own experience is relevant to the extent that, with a view to the situation of many working women in the village, the children are given the opportunity to care and develop values.
Our motto “I can be a child here, it's easier together” expresses this.
So child care is not just a service for parents ...
Yes.
For me, childcare is not just about helping mothers, fathers and professionals.
It offers the children the necessary living and experience space for a good democratic coexistence, in which conflict ability is learned and in which heart building is the top priority.
After I gave up my previous professional activity for the family for the time being, this project was a human, spiritual and organizational challenge for me.
The interesting side effect was that I integrated myself into Zolling as a “newcomer” from Munich and have made valuable friendships to this day.
Looking at your résumé, you never had to step out of your husband's shadow because you never disappeared behind him. To whom and under what circumstances do you owe it to have always been emancipated in life?
You are right, I never felt like I was “in the shadow of my husband”.
However, it was sometimes strange when people weren't expecting me but my husband.
I often had to take part in events on my own, as a “substitute” when my husband again had no time.
Each time the question came up: “What, are you there?
Where's Otto? ”I have since deleted the word“ just ”from my vocabulary.
My husband and I have known each other from the days of the Junge Union and have practiced a “democratic culture of debate”.
Politics, or should we say the political, was and is our shared passion.
It goes without saying that I represent my own opinion and claim an independent field of action.
I have a partner in my husband who has always valued and encouraged this very much and who has supported me even in difficult times.
This has significantly strengthened my self-confidence and given me every independence in my appearance.
I got involved politically, not always to the delight of others.
I can still remember the statement of an acquaintance: “Otto has a wife!
And imagine that she contradicts too! ”I also enjoyed being the mother of our children.
You opened my heart and thus contributed significantly to my own personality development.
I probably learned more from them than the other way around.
In retrospect, I am very grateful for the valuable time I spent with them, and the experiences I was able to make with them were fundamental for the conceptual design of all my projects.
Do you consider it a privilege to have received the necessary tools? Or was and is it hard work to assert yourself as a woman in society?
Probably both.
Yes, I feel privileged, or let's say a gift, because I was allowed to have experiences that enabled me to see a positive human being.
The uniqueness and complexity of every encounter have always fascinated me.
I like people and I like the world.
And it's nice to move around in it and help shape it a little.
And yes, it is often very exhausting to assert yourself, not just as a woman.
This also applies to men.
Anyone who raises their "head" must expect someone to stumble upon it.
In my experience, it is sometimes easier to assert yourself as a woman because communication works better here.
Women have even more access to their feelings and are more likely to think from the other side, are less caught up in dogmatic ideas and stipulations, and think from multiple perspectives.
At least that's my perception.
In all of my engagements, I have mainly worked with women and have come to appreciate a high level of competence, structured thinking and sustainable commitment, but above all a pronounced emotional intelligence.
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You joined the student movement of the 1968s. But only briefly, because they found it difficult to take the destructive side, as you once said in an interview. Is the fight for equality too destructive for you on some points?
I started studying at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in 1975.
We only perceived the 1968 riots as an extension.
Nevertheless, we were politically interested and committed.
I was against the extreme positions of the 68ers because of my understanding of democracy.
For me, democracy is first and foremost a way of life and society, that is, pluralism of views and interests, rule of law and media diversity, social market economy, self-determined life plans, peaceful discourse on conflict regulation, to name just a few key terms.
Where is there room for improvement?
In the “fight” for equality, the word “fight” has always bothered me.
In order to achieve a goal, I always look for the “better” argument.
This already requires democratic maturity.
This does not mean that occasionally provocation can be a legal means of attracting attention.
But a lot has already been achieved in the gender equality debate, because we women have good arguments and we use them sustainably in the political decision-making process.
We definitely need more women who are politically interested, involved and also dare to appear in public.
The proportion of women in parliaments is still too low.
It is not primarily a question of the quota, but of political competence and expertise.
What changes are you particularly grateful for over the past few years? What was important and indispensable?
My husband and I have gradually reduced our activities and are now shaping our life together more intensively.
We have much more time for activities such as travel, sports and friendship.
We get to know each other again.
What many couples take for granted - such as shopping, cooking, hiking and so on - is new and exciting for us.
We both walked through the Edeka with a giggle when we bought food together for the first time.
We like to read a lot, he is history, I am philosophy, and then we talk about it and are positively amazed at how important each supplement is.
Of course, everyday political events still dominate our thinking and sometimes we are disturbed by our own impotence in the face of so many political rejection.
But together we also experience the painful loss of several friends in our personal environment.
The death of my beloved father and his two years of care at home in the Allgäu was very sad for me.
This gave me a different perspective on life and its limitations.
This gives my husband and I an indication of how to live the fleeing time sensibly and consciously.
Personally, I confess that I can only get used to "aging" to a limited extent.
Simone de Beauvoir once said: “Aging means becoming clear about yourself.” I agree with her, and it is really exhausting to meet yourself again and again.
What is essential for you so that women and men can meet at eye level - professionally as well as in a family environment?
As a team leader in my projects, it was most important to me that we learn to listen to each other without prejudice.
This is the basic requirement for any discourse and for a working atmosphere of mutual appreciation, trust and respect for the independence of the other.
Knowing that everyone can do something, I have always tried to see and promote the opportunities and potentials of employees and colleagues first.
I hate nothing like conformism.
That is why projects, as far as I have designed them and participated in them, have always been characterized by free expression and a variety of ideas.
This always resulted in positive things.
Freedom and responsibility were also formative values that our family has tied back to.
Those who learn early to think and act independently will find it easier to meet other people at eye level.
As for me and my husband, today I would say: "Let the other be as he is" - and that is not easy despite the simplicity of the sentence.
You always want to reduce your partner to your own expectations.
This is then called a "relationship".
I prefer to speak of “leaving”.
Now that my husband and I have learned this over more than three decades of marriage, we can both say from the bottom of our hearts: "It's good that you exist and it's good that you are what you are!"
Good to know
Roswitha Wiesheu is one of many female role models that we introduce in our magazine
“Women and Career”
.
The booklet is available from the FT office, Münchner Straße 7 in Freising, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. - or just surf the web.