Madlene Hauswald

Madlene Hauswald
Hauswald, c. 1983
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 22 September, 1983 – 4 September, 2001
Prime Minister	Egon Haber Klaus Heitmeyer Jannick Kohnstamm
Preceded by	Marvin Schöll
Succeeded by	Klaus Heitmeyer
Acting Minister-President
In office 20 July 1999 – 26 July 1999 Serving with Jannick Kohnstamm
Personal details
Born	Elizabeth Madlene Berninger (1925-09-30)September 30, 1925 Tshimberg, Ruthish Borvastaat
Died	November 1, 2005(2005-11-01) (aged 80) Sagard am Möhne, East Ruthen
Citizenship	Ruthish (until 1940) Borvastaater (1925–1988) East Ruthish (from 1944)
Political party	Peasantist
Spouse(s)	Egon Hauswald (m. 1949; died 2001)
Children	2
Education	Royal College of Thessen (1944) Cathedralist College of Sagard
Occupation	Diplomat politician

Elizabeth Madlene Hauswald (née Berninger; 30 September 1925 – 1 November 2005), was an East Ruthish diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of East Ruthen between 1983 and 2001. Hauswald is regarded as the most consequential and influential figures in East Ruthish history owing to her influence on East Ruthish politics and Inter-Ruthen relations, namely the formulation of the Hauswald Doctrine, which saw relations with West Ruthen deteriorate significantly prior to the Six-Day War. As Foreign Minister she was seen as being the de facto leader of East Ruthen owing to the influence she had on the successive governments under which she served; in addition she was regarded as the de facto leader of the Ruthish Peasantist Party between 1985 and 2001.

Hauswald was born in Ruthish Borvastaat in Tshimberg where her father served as a judge for the colonial legal system. The family were forced to flee to the metropole in 1937 after the withdrawal of Ruthish forces from its south Hylasian colonies. As a refugee, Madlene was the sole survivor of her family from the sinking of the SS Ingolf in June 1937 in the Swarin Sea. She settled with surviving relatives in Thessen before once again being made a refugee and fleeing to East Ruthen in 1944. Whilst studying at the Cathedralist College of Sagard, she met and later married Egon Hauswald who himself had also left West Ruthen.

Hauswald worked at the East Ruthish Embassy in Alsvik before being appointed as Deputy Ambassador to Waldrich in 1965. In 1974, she returned to East Ruthen and became a professor of political science and socialist studies at the Cathedralist College of Sagard where she led investigations that resulted in the outing and arrest of twelve professors who had been working as spies for West Ruthen or were members of underground leftist groups. In 1983, she was first appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Egon Haber. Upon Haber's death, Hauswald sought the leadership of the Peasantist Party but withdrew her candidacy in favour of her colleague and political protégé Klaus Heitmeyer who succeeded Haber as Minister-President.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hauswald opposed the policies of Grenzpolitik and reconciliation with West Ruthen and withdrew East Ruthen from all dialogue with the West following Luftverkehr Flight 86. She was instrumental in organising the largest peacetime military build up in Calesian history and under Hauswald's instruction East Ruthen's defence spending sat at 10.3% of its annual GDP in 1998. Hauswald gradually continued to assume further power despite not being head of government and was often the sole point of contact between East Ruthen and foreign leaders who spoke highly of Hauswald's consolidation of authority.

In 1999, Hauswald and newly appointed Minister-President Jannick Kohnstamm were engaged in an internal power struggle over leadership within the government. During the Six-Day War, Hauswald was injured by debris after narrowly escaping a coordinated decapitation strike on the leadership of East Ruthen by Western special forces whilst Kohnstamm placed into a medically induced coma after being severely injured. Subsequently, Hauswald became acting Minister-President of East Ruthen for the remainder of the war, where she signed the Ruthish ceasefire agreement which saw Western forces withdraw from East Ruthen. Hauswald retired after losing the support of cabinet in 2001 in the midst of a renewed power struggle with Kohnstamm. In 2005, she died in her office in Sagard of a suspected heart attack although conspiracy theories surrounding her death persist.

Hauswald's legacy is controversial; within East Ruthen, she is nearly universally praised for her handling of the Six-Day War, although the Hauswald Doctrine remains controversial despite continuing to form the backbone of East Ruthish diplomacy. In West Ruthen, Hauswald is a much more controversial figure and is regarded as having sparked the Six-Day War through her aggressive and militaristic policies. Further afield, Hauswald helped rally international support for the People's Party in Borvastaat for which she had her Borvastaater citizenship revoked in 1988, although she later apologised for her role in this in 2003 and visited the country extensively over the following years. Hauswald was a keen supporter of the Nordbund and advocated for a closer political, economic and military union of the Swarin Sea states as well as for increased foreign aid to and closer relations with post-colonial nations to prevent the spread of socialism in the Global South.

Foreign policy

Six-Day War

Hauswald's damaged armoured car on display after the attack on her convoy