Wolfgang Tiefensee

Wolfgang Tiefensee (born 4 January 1955 in Gera) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was the Federal Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Development in the grand coalition cabinet led by Angela Merkel between 2005 and 2009. Since 2014, he has been the State Minister of Economy, Science and the Digital Society in the government of Thuringia's Minister-President Bodo Ramelow.

Wolfgang Tiefensee
Deputy Minister President of Thuringia
Assumed office
4 March 2020
Minister PresidentBodo Ramelow
Preceded byHeike Taubert
Minister of Economics, Science and Digital Society of Thuringia
Assumed office
4 March 2020
Minister PresidentBodo Ramelow
Preceded byHimself
In office
5 December 2014 – 5 February 2020
Minister PresidentBodo Ramelow
Preceded byUwe Höhn
Succeeded byHimself
Leader of the Social Democratic Party in Thuringia
Assumed office
11 March 2018
DeputyAntje Hochwind
Diana Lehmann
Cornelia Klisch
Sven Schrade
Preceded byAndreas Bausewein
Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs
In office
22 November 2005 – 27 October 2009
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byManfred Stolpe
Succeeded byPeter Ramsauer
Mayor of Leipzig
In office
1 July 1998 – 22 November 2005
Preceded byHinrich Lehmann-Grube
Succeeded byBurkhard Jung
Member of the Landtag of Thuringia
In office
27 October 2019 – 4 December 2019
ConstituencySocial Democratic List
Member of the Bundestag
for Thuringia
In office
27 September 2009 – 5 December 2014
ConstituencySocial Democratic List
Personal details
Born (1955-01-04) 4 January 1955
Gera, East Germany
NationalityGerman
Political partySPD
ProfessionEngineer
Websitewolfgang-tiefensee.de

Career

Originally an electrical engineer, Tiefensee turned to politics in 1989, during the democratization process of the German Democratic Republic. He became a member of the SPD in 1995.[1]

Mayor of Leipzig, 1998–2005

Tiefensee was elected mayor of Leipzig in 1998, and was re-elected with 67.1% of the vote in April 2005.[2] Before 2005, he declined offers of a position in the federal government, stating his place was in Leipzig.[3]

As mayor, he put great effort into Leipzig's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. While Leipzig unexpectedly won the campaign to tender the German bid,[4] the middle-sized city did not get past the first round of the international competition, which was in fact won by London.

In 2002, Tiefensee was part of the 15-member commission that developed the so-called Hartz reforms, a set of recommendations to reform the German labour market as part of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Agenda 2010. Later that year, following the 2002 federal elections, he declined Schröder’s offer to join his government.[5]

Role in national politics

In 2007, Tiefensee chaired talks following which EU transport ministers agreed unanimously to end talks with a private consortium contracted to develop the Galileo satellite navigation system and to spend €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) to build it themselves instead.[6]

Also during his tenure as Germany's transport minister, Tiefensee announced the little-known architect Francesco Stella as the winner of a competition to find an architectural design for the controversial reconstruction of the Berlin Stadtschloss in 2008.[7]

In 2012, Tiefensee succeeded Garrelt Duin as spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group on economic affairs. In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of the Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, he was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on economic policy, led by Ilse Aigner and Hubertus Heil.

Career in state politics

Tiefensee resigned from his seat in parliament when he became State Minister of Economy, Science and the Digital Society in the government of Thuringia's Minister-President Bodo Ramelow in 2014. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he serves on the Committee on Cultural Affairs and on the Committee on Economic Affairs.

In early 2018, Tiefensee was elected chairman of the SPD in Thuringia, succeeding Andreas Bausewein. He was confirmed in the November 2018 party conference.[8]

In May 2020, Tiefensee announced that he would not stand in the next Thuringian state election but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[9]

Other activities

Regulatory agencies

Corporate boards
  • Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), Member of the Supervisory Board
  • Thüringer Aufbaubank (TAB), Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014)
  • Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft Thüringen (LEG), Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014)
  • Carl Zeiss Foundation, Ex-Officio Member of the Board (since 2014)
  • KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Supervisory Board (2005-2009)

Non-profit organizations
  • Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018)[11]
  • Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Member of the Board of Trustees[12]
  • Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, Chairman (since 2012)
  • German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW), Member of the Political Advisory Board
  • Institute for Germany Studies (IDF), Ruhr University Bochum, Member of the Board of Trustees
  • Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, Member of the Board of Trustees
  • Sepsis-Stiftung, Member of the Board of Trustees[13]
  • German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW), Member of the Political Advisory Board (2009-2015)

Personal life

Tiefensee, whose father was the musician and conductor Siegfried Tiefensee, is also known for playing the cello, a talent that he successfully incorporated into Leipzig's Olympic bid. His brother, Eberhard Tiefensee, is a Catholic priest and was professor of theology at the University of Erfurt from 1997 to 2018.

References
  1. "Wolfgang Tiefensee, SPD". Biographies of members of the Bundestag (in German). German Bundestag. Archived from the original on 2010-02-20. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
  2. "Ergebnisse der Oberbürgermeisterwahlen". www.leipzig.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  3. "Sein Leipzig lobt er sich" (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  4. "One Last Effort to Revive Leipzig Olympic Bid". Deutsche Welle. 2003-11-12. Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  5. Holger Kulick (October 16, 2002), Schröders neuer Verkehrsminister: Stolpe, der Unverbesserliche Archived 2016-09-13 at the Wayback Machine Spiegel Online.
  6. Andrew Bounds (June 8, 2007), EU to spend $3bn more on Galileo Financial Times.
  7. Carlos Albuquerque (January 7, 2009), Berlin's city palace controversy refuses to die Archived 2018-12-12 at the Wayback Machine Deutsche Welle.
  8. "Tiefensee als Landesvorsitzender der SPD wiedergewählt". mdr.de (in German). 11 November 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  9. Tiefensee tritt nicht erneut für SPD-Landesvorsitz an Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, May 29, 2020.
  10. Advisory Board Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA).
  11. Bernd Westphal wird neuer Beirats-Vorsitzender beim Wirtschaftsforum der SPD Archived 2018-06-16 at the Wayback Machine Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , press release of June 7, 2018.
  12. Board of Trustees Archived 2018-06-17 at the Wayback Machine Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES).
  13. About Us Archived 2019-04-18 at the Wayback Machine Sepsis-Stiftung.
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