Berlin Left Party | Will this leftist become a senator?

Wenke Christoph heads the economics and businesses as well as labor and social affairs specialist groups in the coalition negotiations. Photo: imago/Funke Photo Services "It's always about real, noticeable improvements." That's what Wenke Christoph said last year at an event organized by Hellen Panke, the Berlin branch of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, which was about evaluating past governments with left-wing participation. It is the strategic expression of the election campaign motto “Make Berlin affordable,” with which the Left entered the House of Representatives as the strongest force.

Born in Königs Wusterhausen near Berlin, the 45-year-old has been a member of the Left for more than 25 years and has been on the party's state executive board since 2025. Nevertheless, very few Berliners are likely to be familiar with her – other comrades are more visible in public.

Christoph is considered a candidate for a Senate position in a state government led by the Left. Because unlike many others in the party, which has rejuvenated itself significantly in recent years, she can demonstrate government experience. Between 2020 and 2023 she was State Secretary in Berlin. First in the Urban Development Senate under Sebastian Scheel, then in the Social Senate under Katja Kipping. In the current coalition negotiations, together with MP Damiano Valgolio, she leads the left's negotiating groups on the topics of economy and businesses as well as labor and social issues.

In her application for the state board, Christoph explained that she was running because she wanted to be part of the state board team and help make the state association capable of acting. She made similar comments in 2022 in a debate contribution that she published together with other leftists, including today's parliamentary group leader Tobias Schulze and Klaus Lederer and Carsten Schatz, who have since left the party. “It’s not know-it-alls and demarcation,” but the political and social search for connection and the ability to form alliances that brings the Left forward.

Christoph worked for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation for a long time from 2013 onwards. There she also designed and published a publication on solidarity cities in Europe in 2019. In the meantime she was on the board of the left-wing think tank “Institut Solidarische Moderne”. Since 2024, she has been managing director of “Kiron Education”, a non-profit start-up that trains migrants and refugees for the job market.

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