Helena Wolf: “I have the confidence to do it and I know what I want”

• OfEast Tinç

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At the age of only 24, Helena Wolf leads the SPD parliamentary group in Offenbach and also wants to be a role model for young girls and women.

In the past few days and weeks, Helena Wolf has already had some critical reactions to her election as SPD parliamentary leader: “She’ll do it for a year at the most. She won’t survive it anyway. ”“ That is the effect of someone asserting their interests. ”“ You put a little girl down there who doesn’t say no. ”“ That, ”says the 24-year-old,“ is definitely not the case. Everyone involved knows that too. “

Wolf is not only the first woman to head the Offenbach SPD parliamentary group, but also the youngest by far. After it was clear that the previous parliamentary group leader Martin Wilhelm was to be elected treasurer, the post became vacant. “At some point things turned out differently than I expected myself,” says Wolf about the decision-making process. The faction board is completed by Maurice Skowronek, Ida Todesco and Holger Hinkel.

Wolf was elected to the city parliament for the first time in March, moving from eighth to fifth place. Together with Hibba Kauser (22), who cumulated from fourth to second place, Wolf obviously managed to inspire younger voters.

Born in Offenbach, she has been politically active for a long time. She joined the Jusos organization in January 2015, and has headed the Tempelsee / Lauterborn SPD local association for a year and a half. She was the head girl of the Rudolf Koch School, where she studied politics and economics for one year under the current Mayor Felix Schwenke. At the Technical University in Darmstadt, where she studies mechanical engineering, she was Asta chairman. “I’ve always enjoyed doing politics where I can see changes,” says Wolf.

She wants to dedicate herself in particular to the topic of child poverty and to implement the action plan agreed in the coalition agreement. Since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, Wolf has been volunteering at the Tafel. “That sharpened my view of poverty even more,” she says. She was aware from the start that unpleasant topics would also come up, such as the savings in local public transport, which she had to defend in her first speech in the city council. She has red lines that she won’t cross. You can compromise on other things. “As a young person you have to work so hard to be taken seriously. As a young woman four times as much. “

Go your own way

She learned to assert herself early on. She started playing soccer for SG Wiking at the age of three and a half, and until she was 14 she played football with boys. Then she moved to Eintracht Frankfurt for two years before she came back to SG Wiking and broke her metatarsal bone in the game against Eintracht of all places; at 17 she stopped playing soccer. At the same time, she started rowing at the age of eleven and just missed qualifying for the Junior World Championship in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. “I used to concentrate my energy in sport, now in politics,” she says with a smile. But she’s still running and also rides a racing bike.

Wolf came to study mechanical engineering rather indirectly; she actually finds it uninteresting to design machines. After spending several months in Iceland, she can imagine getting involved in the development and research of renewable energies. She wants to complete her master’s degree and then possibly study environmental engineering. In her political work she wants to show girls and young women how strong young women can be and that you can go your own way. “I’ve always done that. Both with football and with mechanical engineering and now as a parliamentary group leader. “

She wants to remain critical within her own ranks and preserve the view from the outside, which she still has as a freshly appointed city councilor. On the other hand, she wants to call out to all those who still underestimate her politically: “I trust myself to do it. I may only be 24, but I know what I want and will do what I want. “

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