Johanna Wanka (born 1 April 1951 in Rosenfeld, Saxony) (née Johanna Müller) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union. She is Minister of Science and Culture of the state of Lower Saxony, in the Cabinet McAllister. From 2000 to 2009, she served as Minister for Science, Research and Culture of the state of Brandenburg
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Wanka attended the polytechnic school in Großtreben and the advanced school in Torgau before studying mathematics at the University of Leipzig. From 1974 on, she was a research assistant at the Technische Hochschule Leuna-Merseburg (Leuna-Merseburg technical high school), where she received her doctorate in 1980. In 1993 she became Professor of Engineering Mathematics at the University of Merseburg. In March 1994 she was elected rector (headmistress) of her university, a position she retained until being called as a minister in October 2000.
She is married to mathematics professor Gert Wanka with whom she has had two children.
Wanka has been a member of the West German citizens' movement since 1989. She joined the CDU in 2001, the CDU executive in Brandenburg in May 2003, and became Chair of the Dahme-Spreewald District in December 2003. She was appointed Deputy National Chair of the CDU Brandenburg in January 2007, Acting National Chair in October 2008, and National Chair by January 2009.[1]
The German newspaper Der Spiegel quotes her as follows: "The Minister of Culture has long known that the spelling reform was wrong. For reasons of state, it has not been withdrawn."
This article was translated from de:Johanna Wanka in the German Wikipedia on 3 July 2009.
Johanna Wanka in the German National Library catalogue (German)