How parties scare away their young talents

Her resignation reads like a reckoning – a reckoning with internal party intrigues for the sake of staying in power. After only five months, the leader of the Young Liberals (JuLis) in Hamburg, Theresa Bardenhewer, is stepping down from her post. She seems disappointed, bitter and exhausted. The first woman to head the Hanseatic JuLis for 20 years has become a victim of quarrels in the FDP, which happened according to a well-known pattern. Because not only uncomfortable elders are sometimes chased out of their party. Junior staff also fail because they want to fight for their ideals instead of subordinating themselves to the tailor-made line. Bardenhewer is just one current example, as the SPD and CDU have recently scared away unsuitable talent and shown how little open dialogue is often possible.

"I had to get to know the ugly side of politics and defend myself against personal attacks that robbed me of my strength, time and joy in the office," says Bardenhewer. The frustration of not having to invest her free time in substantive work, but "in an absurd argument with the FDP presidium" made her resign. The 26-year-old lawyer complains that she was “put under pressure” by the party leadership from the start.

Bardenhewer was elected JuLi head of state in March - i.e. the face of the youth organization "which is close to the FDP" and which has 400 members in the Hanseatic city. The Elb-FDP has 2,100. Bardenhewer's euphoria soon gave way to disillusionment. She became the head of the self-proclaimed constructive-critical JuLis, who rebelled against the FDP state leader Michael Kruse. If the dispute was initially about criticism of the content of the youngsters on the Corona and Ukraine line of the Elbliberals, it culminated in a personally hurtful exchange of blows.

Bardenhewer and her comrades-in-arms Carl Coste, Nils Knoben and Gloria Teichmann accused Kruse of "substantive conformity" and "political cleansing", and the JuLis party then accused "Nazi-related language". In the meantime, the FDP has sought exclusion proceedings against the rebels, and they responded with a lawsuit before the party's arbitral tribunal - supported by the social-liberal veteran Gerhart Baum. The FDP, meanwhile, emphasizes that its hand remains outstretched.

Bardenhewer is aware that she has to be assertive and robust for a political career. However, the 26-year-old did not expect this hardness. In the state executive of the Elbe Liberals, "there is no error culture and no inhibitions when it comes to maintaining one's own power," says Bardenhewer. She was particularly shocked by the "influence of the FDP on the JuLis". Functionaries of the youth association were called by FDP members to change decisions or to force Bardenhewer to resign.

The Christian Democrat Carsten Ovens (41) and Comrade Hauke ​​Wagner (40) have also experienced how grueling climbing the ladder in a party can be. Both were considered talented and ambitious, got hold of the top office of their youth organizations in Hamburg a decade ago, moved into the state parliament - and failed on or in everyday political life.

Ovens, for example, grazed the areas of science and the digital economy, campaigned for Hamburg as a start-up location and was a recognized expert in the field. But because he did not want to face a surprisingly instigated candidacy for the top position of the CDU in his constituency in 2020, he turned his back on active politics - with the statement: "Constant change is part of democracy. Whether it was necessary here – and who it helps – can be assessed differently.”

Wagner, in turn, grew up with politics as the son of the former Hamburg SPD building senator Eugen Wagner. He got to know the mayors as a child – as friends of his father. As he climbed to the top himself, an icy wind blew swiftly against him. Wagner offended because he wanted to shake up and modernize the content of his SPD. When he retired in 2019, he said: "The SPD and, to a certain extent, the Union are now solving problems that nobody mentions, and they give answers to questions that nobody asks."

The former hopefuls only gave an idea of ​​how much bitterness there was behind the departure of Ovens and Wagner. Today both are active in the economy. Ovens is Executive Director of Elnet, a think tank that ties to Israel on foreign, security and innovation policy. Wagner works as an independent entrepreneur, produces podcasts and TikTok videos.

Both of them don't want to have anything to do with looking back in anger, rather they feel freed from the corset of politics. Ovens is grateful for the "fulfilling and instructive time", although it was "not always easy". "I now believe," Wagner adds, "that politics is not for people who think entrepreneurially and outside the party line."

With her resignation, Theresa Bardenhewer not only wants to encourage people to think about how to deal with politics. "Especially in the JuLis and in the FDP we have too few young women who want to get involved." She also directs a bitter reproach at party friend Ria Schröder: For the member of parliament and deputy head of state, the advancement of women is "only relevant if it's about them himself goes". Instead of supporting her, Schröder tried to turn JuLis against her. "Politics has never been my career path for me, but rather an honorary post," says Bardenhewer - and hopes that at some point she will find the motivation to "get politically involved again". Incidentally, the conflict among the Elbe Liberals did not end there, because their confidante Nils Knoben is applying to succeed Bardenhewer.