She never left any doubt about the important role her job plays in her life: Anyone who has experienced Elke Büdenbender in conversation with citizens over the past five years has been able to discover legally trained thinking in her precise questions and her sense of what is important.

Anyone who spoke to her at Bellevue Palace about her duties as patron of the mothers' convalescent home, her commitment to vocational training or a lunch with the Queen, sometimes found out that she continued to read trade journals and kept in touch with her colleagues at the Berlin Administrative Court.

Julia Schaaf

Editor in the "Life" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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In this respect, it is not surprising that the woman, who met Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a law student in Gießen, wants to work as a judge again from spring - and only wants to be First Lady part-time.

Büdenbender has just turned 60 and their daughter has long left the house.

It is her last chance to return to work.

"He's a part of me"

Büdenbender describes herself as a classic educational climber.

As the daughter of a steel construction fitter, she first completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk.

Even when Steinmeier, to whom she has been married since 1995, ran as the SPD's candidate for chancellor, she stayed away from the public.

Since 2010 she has been living with a kidney donated by her husband, and the couple also treated the transplant largely privately.

After his election as Federal President, she told the FAS with regard to her good marriage: "He is part of me."

Five years ago, Elke Büdenbender was heavily criticized for an emancipated woman like her giving up her job to work unpaid in her husband's shadow: after all, the role of First Lady in Germany is not an official position.

She herself never understood this discussion.

Instead, she clarified that she made a self-determined decision.

Since then, the couple's public appearances have given the impression of a partnership of equals.

The judge in the castle has gained a lot of sympathy and respect with a mixture of cordiality, sense of duty and authenticity.

During his second term of office, she too will be able to catch up on a lot of things that fell by the wayside due to the corona pandemic - but only with half her time.

In the past, the person of the wife of the Federal President was often regarded as a yardstick for the modernity of society.

It doesn't do any harm if a new compatibility model is tried out at the head of state that does justice to this self-confident woman.