Daniel Wesener

Daniel Wesener (born 5 December 1975) is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who served as State Minister (Senator) for Finance in the government of Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey of Berlin from December 2021 to April 2023. He was previously state chairman of the Greens from 2011 to 2017, and a member of the State Parliament of Berlin from 2016 to 2022. Wesener was born and grew up in Hamburg. After graduating from the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium and completing community service, he moved to Berlin in 1996. He studied history and art history at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the College of William & Mary in the United States, and was a scholarship holder of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst. He finished his studies without a degree and worked in the office of Christian Ströbele, member of the Bundestag for the Greens, from 2003 to 2011. Wesener has been a member of the Greens since 2001. In 2006, he was elected to the municipal council of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, where he co-chaired the Greens group with Antje Kapek until 2011. In March 2011, Wesener was elected co-chairman of the Berlin Greens alongside Bettina Jarasch. The two led the coalition negotiations with the SPD under Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit after the 2011 Berlin state election.