their knowledge this was elected a short while ago to special conference in the western city of rees barton she won sixty six percent of the vote beating simone erlanger the mayor of the city of flensburg forty seven year old knowledges faces a huge task in reviving her party's dwindling fortunes the s.p.d. had its worst ever election result last september. and that s.p.d. party conference for us is our political correspondent thomas thomas not as the first woman to lead the s.p.d. how significant is that. it is indeed significant because we're talking here about the party described as the oldest in germany and also because knowledge has a very important task a very important challenge ahead of namely to push the renewal of a party that has suffered a lot in recent months as it's gone from one crisis to the next it is also important if you look at germany's political spectrum because knowledge is not the only woman now leading a party we've got four women in germany why the leader of kohli political parties so it is significant that knowledge has been chosen for a wide variety of reasons al