Germany's "Red Heidi" on the attack against Wolfowitz

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, a German minister known as "red Heidi" for her auburn hair and left-wing leanings, has emerged as one of the most tenacious critics of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.

The 64-year-old development minister, a former history teacher, has led European calls for him to step down to salvage the bank's credibility that they say has been damaged by his handling of a promotion for his companion.

Despite her gentle appearance and soft voice, Wieczorek-Zeul has been turning up the volume of her criticism of Wolfowitz over the last month and, with the quiet backing of the German government, has now bluntly urged the American to leave.

"He would do the bank and himself a great service if he resigned," she told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.

She also told Wolfowitz he was not welcome at a World Bank forum on development aid for Africa on Monday in Berlin he was due to attend, a slap in the face from a woman best known for causing problems for her own party leaders.

A leading leftist voice in the Social Democrats (SPD), she is the longest-serving minister in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. She has led her ministry since Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, appointed her in 1998.

Wieczorek-Zeul, who has often tangled with Schroeder and the more SPD centrist leaders, was a particularly loud opponent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Wolfowitz helped plan in his previous capacity as deputy U.S. defense secretary.

Despite her penchant for haranguing past and present SPD leaders for not sufficiently including left-wing demands in their policies, she has raised the clout of the Development Ministry over the last nine years considerably.

A throwback to an earlier era in the SPD, Wieczorek-Zeul has been in parliament since 1987 and, with a long track record as a pacifist, has remained an anti-war activist in government.

When asked in a newspaper interview last year if she enjoyed being "a big pain", she said: "It depends. If it's necessary to push through what's needed in development policies, I'll use whatever it takes."

In 2000, she paid a high-profile trip to Cuba to announce a resumption of German development aid to Cuba and, in a surprise visit to Fidel Castro on her trip, became the first government official from reunited Germany to meet the Cuban leader.