as a teacher at the medical faculty's Institute for Clinical Pharmacology till her retirement in 1998. She had also remained a member of the local council in Neuenhagen since 1989, and in 1996 she was elected chair of the Christian Democratic Union party group on the council. In Summer 2007 she resigned the chair after the majority of the group had indicated that the time had come for a change. Press reports indicated that this came as the culmination of a period of internal ructions in the group who had as much to do with personality differences as with policy differences. In September 2007 Ackermann also resigned her party membership. Her fellow council member, Susanne Ahrens, withdrew her support from the Christian Democratic Union faction in the council at the same time. They formed an alternative grouping which they called the "Christlich soziale Frauen" ("Christian Social Women"). Else Ackermann explained the move by criticising the misogynistic attitude of her replacement as Christian Democratic Union group leader on the council, Alfred Kuck, and some of his male colleagues. The local party reacted by submitting a motion at state level calling for Ackermann's exclusion from the party. Ackermann pointed out that she had already resigned. A certain amount of rancour was on very public display. Pointing out that the reason that she had retained her position with the Christian Democratic Union group on the Neuenhagen council was that she was the one who had always attracted the votes in local elections ("Ich habe immer die Stimmen geholt"), she again stood as a candidate for the local council in the 2008 municipal elections, now representing the "New Neuenhagen Citizen's Alliance" ("Neue Bürger Allianz Neuenhagen" /NBA). This time her candidacy was not successful, and she resigned from the NBA in February 2009. Meanwhile, the motion submitted by the Neuenhagen party to have Ackermann excluded from the Christian Democratic Union was rejected by the party state leadership for Brandenburg. Ackermann was handed a reprimand for conduct damaging to the party and remained a Christian Democratic Union of Germany member. Honour In 2014 Ackermann became the first recipient of the Wilhelm Wolf prize. Wilhelm Wolf was the first regional chairman of the regional Christian Democratic Union of Germany in Brandenburg. He was killed in a motor accident in 1948, under circumstances that were never clearly explained during the period when Brandenburg was part of the Soviet