Christoph Matschie

Christoph Matschie (2020)

Christoph Matschie (* 15. July 1961 in Muehlhausen / Thuringia ) is a German politician of the SPD .

During the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR , Matschie worked in the newly founded SPD of the GDR in 1989 and was subsequently a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 to 2004 and Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research between 2002 and 2004 , before moving into state politics changed.

From 1999 to 2014 he was state chairman of the SPD Thuringia , after the state elections in 2004 he was chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament and after the elections from 2009 to 2014 in a coalition with the CDU under Christine Lieberknecht, Minister of Culture and Deputy Prime Minister of Thuringia; He was no longer a member of the government of the left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow . He has been a member of the German Bundestag again since 2017.

education and profession

After attending the Polytechnic High School (POS) in Schwarza , Matschie completed vocational training with a high school diploma as a mechanic in Zella-Mehlis . He later worked as a nursing assistant at the Medical Academy in Erfurt . In the early 1980s he was involved in the independent peace movement, u. a. in the Montagskreis Suhl and in the peace community Jena . In 1984 he began studying theology in Rostock and Jena , which he completed in 1989 with a degree in theology.

Political career

Federal policy until 2004

In October 1989 Matschie joined the SDP of the GDR one. In 1989/90 he was a representative of the SDP (later: SPD) at the central round table of the GDR. From January to September 1990 he was a member of the executive board and from February to September 1990 also in the presidium of the GDR SPD. From 1990 to July 1, 2004, he was a member of the German Bundestag as a representative of the German SPD . In the 14th electoral term (1998 to 2002) he was a member of the executive committee of the SPD parliamentary group . From November 1998 to October 2002 he was chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. In the 15th electoral period (from 2002) he was directly elected member of the constituency Jena - Weimar - Weimarer Land with 44.4 percent of the votes .

Matschie was a member of the board of the SPD Thuringia from 1996 to 2014 , from 1999 as chairman. From 2001 to 2019 he was a member of the SPD party executive , from 2005 to 2011 he was also a member of the presidium.

From October 22nd, 2002 he was Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Education and Research . On June 24th, 2004 he announced his resignation from this office in order to devote himself to the Thuringian state politics.

State election 2004

In the 2004 Thuringian state elections , Matschie stood for the first time as the top candidate of his party. In this election, the SPD lost four percentage points and, with 14.5 percent of the vote, dropped to an all-time low in Thuringia. In contrast, the CDU under Dieter Althaus achieved 43 percent of the vote and an absolute majority of the mandates. The PDS took second place with 26.1 percent of the vote.

Matschie became chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the new state parliament.

State election 2009

On February 24, 2008, the members of the Thuringian SPD elected him the top candidate for the 2009 state elections with 71.6 percent of the vote . His opponent Richard Dewes received 27.0 percent. The main topic of the candidate election was the question of whether the SPD - since it had performed worse than the PDS in the last two state elections - should participate in a coalition under a Prime Minister of the Left Party. Dewes advocated this in contrast to Matschie, who claimed the office of prime minister in a possible coalition with the left.

In the state elections on August 30, 2009, the SPD made up for the losses in the last state elections, but with 18.5 percent of the vote it again only achieved third place behind the CDU (31.2 percent of the votes) and the Left Party ( 27.4 percent of the vote). In this election, the FDP (7.6 percent of the vote) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (6.2 percent of the vote) returned to the state parliament. Matschie himself won the constituency of Jena I (against Karin Kaschuba and Reyk Seela ) as his party's direct candidate - the SPD last won direct seats in the 1994 state elections .

The CDU lost its absolute mandate majority and, together with the FDP, did not achieve a majority. An alliance between the SPD and the Left would have achieved a slim majority of 45 out of 88 seats, or 51 of 88 seats if Alliance 90 / The Greens were included . However, after the election, Matschie reaffirmed that the left's top candidate, Bodo Ramelow , would not be elected prime minister, while the left claimed the office of prime minister as the stronger of the two parties.

After the SPD under Matschie had exploratory talks with the Greens and the Left as well as with the CDU in the weeks after the election, the SPD state executive decided on October 1, 2009 to start coalition negotiations with the CDU. Matschie justified this with the fact that the talks with the Left Party and the Greens had failed. For this decision, Matschie was also violently attacked from within his own party, especially since the SPD had suffered double-digit losses in the 2009 Bundestag election and a public debate had now started about a reorientation of the party to the left.

Cabinet Lieberknecht

On October 30, 2009, the Thuringian state parliament elected the new CDU state chairwoman Christine Lieberknecht as Thuringian Prime Minister. In the Lieberknecht cabinet , the members of which were presented on November 3, 2009, Matschie was given the office of Thuringian Minister of Education and the position of Deputy Prime Minister. In December 2010 a new Thuringian School Act was passed on his initiative, which provides for the introduction of community schools.

State election 2014

For the 2014 state elections , the Thuringian SPD agreed on Heike Taubert as the top candidate. In the election, the SPD only received 12.4 percent of the vote; Matschie himself lost his direct mandate in Jena and received only the fourth most votes in his constituency Jena I. One day after the election, he declared that he no longer wanted to run for the SPD state chairmanship; his successor was Andreas Bausewein . For the first time, the SPD formed a red-red-green coalition led by the left. In the Ramelow I cabinet , which was appointed on December 5, 2014, Matschie was not reappointed minister; instead he should take over the chairmanship of the SPD parliamentary group again instead of the recently elected Matthias Hey . However, after internal party disputes over this issue, he announced a few days later that he would not stand for this office.

Return to federal politics from 2017

For the 2017 federal election , Matschie decided to run again for the Bundestag. When drawing up the SPD state list, he narrowly prevailed against Steffen-Claudio Lemme with his application for third place on the list . Since the SPD won three parliamentary mandates in Thuringia, Matschie returned to the Bundestag after 13 years and resigned his state parliament mandate in October 2017. Matschie has been a full member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag since 2017 and a deputy member of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development. For the SPD parliamentary group , he is responsible for the Africa region and on behalf of Russia and Ukraine. Matschie is also chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the United Nations, international organizations and globalization subcommittee.

family

Christoph Matschie is the son of a pastor and a nurse. He is divorced and has three children. Matschie lives in Jena .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matschie SPD top candidate in Thuringia , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 24, 2008.
2. ↑ Primary election in Thuringia - Matschie wins with an overwhelming majority , SPD Thuringia, February 24, 2008.
3. ^ SPD gives the left in Thuringia a basket , Welt Online, October 2, 2009.
4. ^ Matschie wants to change policy with yesterday's opponent , Spiegel Online, October 1, 2009.
5. ^ Constituency 037 Jena I at the regional returning officer Thuringia.
6. ^ SPD country chief Matschie resigns. Zeit Online, September 15, 2014, accessed December 5, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Elmar Otto: SPD ministers have been determined - Matschie is the new parliamentary group leader. Thüringische Landeszeitung, December 4, 2014, accessed December 5, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Matschie gives up: No candidacy for parliamentary group chairmanship. Ostthüringer Zeitung, December 10, 2014, accessed on December 10, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Martin Debes: SPD sends Carsten Schneider as the top candidate in the federal election. Thüringer Allgemeine, February 27, 2017, accessed on September 26, 2017 . 

literature

• Short biography for:  Matschie, Christoph Andreas . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Christoph Matschie  - Collection of images

• Short biography . Thuringian Parliament.
• Biography at the German Bundestag
• own web presence