Frank Spieth

Frank Spieth, 2007

Frank Spieth (born April 4, 1947 in Wetzlar ) is a German trade unionist and politician ( Die Linke ).

Life and work

Frank Spieth was born the son of a master tailor in Wetzlar, Hesse, and grew up in simple circumstances. During his school days Spieth was involved in Protestant youth work, and later active with the young socialists . After he had attended elementary school in Wetzlar , the entry into professional life was initially difficult for Spieth, as he had lost his right hand in an explosives accident at the age of fourteen. He did not start an apprenticeship straight away, but attended a commercial school and finally began his professional life as a messenger at Buderus in Wetzlar. Finally, Spieth completed an apprenticeship as a technical draftsman there from 1964 to 1967 . During his apprenticeship, he postponed his work with the young socialists in favor of company and union youth work. Until 1971 he worked in his trained profession in Wetzlar.

Union work

Frank Spieth began his political work as a trade unionist. Overall, Spieth can look back on 35 years of full-time trade union activity. During his training, he joined IG Metall , began to get involved in the union and was a youth representative in the company. From 1971 to 1972 he was trained as a trade union secretary of the DGB in the Gießen district . From 1972 to 1975 he worked as organizational secretary of the DGB in the Fulda district. From 1975 Spieth was DGB district chairman in the Vogelsberg district and held this position until 1992. He was then from 1992 to 2006 the DGB state chairman in Thuringia.

Board activity

As a health expert, Frank Spieth has been involved in the self-administration of the statutory health insurance companies since 1974 . From 1994 to 2007 he was the Board Chairman of the AOK Thuringia and the medical health insurance service in Thuringia.

Club and committee activities

During his activity as DGB chairman, Frank Spieth was active in numerous associations and committees. He was on the advisory board of LEG Thuringia, on the Broadcasting Council of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk and on the advisory board of Thüringer Aufbaubank (TAB). Spieth was chairman of the youth development association ran.eV and chairman of the structure and employee advice agency START.eV

Frank Spieth is a member and deputy chairman of Naturefriends . He is also a member of the mobile advisory team for democracy and against right-wing extremism in Thuringia e. V. (MoBiT), of which he was co-founder and chairman.

Political party

In 1966 Frank Spieth became a member of the SPD . In 1997 he participated in the drafting of the Erfurt Declaration and was one of its first signatories. The Erfurt Declaration was the view of the signatories to an urgent plea for a different policy and an initiative that should contribute to the election of a new government.

In 2003, during Gerhard Schröder's second term in office , Frank Spieth resigned from the SPD after 37 years of membership. In his exit declaration, Spieth named the Agenda 2010 policy and the dismantling of the welfare state associated with this policy as reasons for leaving.

He has been a member of Die Linke since the party congress in Thuringia in July 2007.

MP

From 2005 to 2009 Frank Spieth was a member of the German Bundestag . Here he was health policy spokesman for the left parliamentary group and its chairman in the committee for health.

He moved into the Bundestag via the open state list of Thuringia of the Linkspartei.PDS . His home constituency was Erfurt - Weimar - Weimarer Land II . He is no longer a member of the 17th German Bundestag.

Federal politics

At the health policy level, Frank Spieth advocates the introduction of social and solidarity citizens' insurance . He calls for equal financing of health costs and is against the increasing privatization of health care and the outsourcing of services (additional services). He demands the abolition of the assessment ceiling , the reform of the fee system in medical practices and advocates more humane working hours for clinicians. In terms of social policy, Frank Spieth works for the introduction of a nationwide minimum wage and the immediate reinstatement of the wealth tax .

Web links

Commons : Frank Spieth  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography at the German Bundestag
• Frank Spieth's website (out of date)