Harald Ringstorff

Harald Ringstorff (2008)

Harald Ringstorff (born September 25, 1939 in Wittenburg ) is a German politician ( SPD ). From November 1998 to October 2008 he was Prime Minister of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

Life

After graduating from high school in Hagenow in 1958 , Ringstorff served in the National People's Army . In 1960 he began studying chemistry at the University of Rostock , which he completed in 1965 as a graduate chemist. As a scientific assistant at the University of Rostock, he specialized in analytical chemistry . In 1969 the doctorate A to Dr. rer. nat. He then worked as a chemist at VEB Kombinat Schiffbau in Rostock until 1987 . From 1987 to 1990 he was head of the ship colors coast branch at VEB Kombinat Lacke und Farben . Ringstorff lives in Weisse Krug, a district of Blankenberg . He is dedicated to preserving the Low German language, is married and has one child.

politics

In 1989 Ringstorff was one of the founding members of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR (SDP). From 1990 to 2003 he was state chairman of the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ringstorff ran in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 as the SPD's top candidate for the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

After the People's Chamber election in 1990 , Ringstorff sat in the GDR's first freely elected People's Chamber from March to October 1990 . From 1990 to 2011 he was a member of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament . Here he was chairman of the SPD parliamentary group from 1990 to 1994 and from 1996 to 1998 .

Ringstorff was elected to the state parliament in the state elections on September 17, 2006 via the SPD state list. He did not run for the 2011 state election.

Public offices

Harald Ringstorff (1990)

After the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 1990 , a black-yellow coalition was formed , based on 33 of the 66 mandates and tolerated by a single member.

After the FDP had left the state parliament and, accordingly, from the state government in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 1994 , a grand coalition was formed under the leadership of the CDU by Prime Minister Berndt Seite . Ringstorff took over the office of Minister for Economy and Affairs of the European Union as well as the Deputy Prime Minister on December 8th, 1994 . On May 7, 1996, he resigned from office to take over the chairmanship of the SPD parliamentary group again.

After the state elections in 1998, the SPD formed a coalition with the Democratic Socialism Party , after it failed in 1994 due to resistance from the then SPD Federal Chairman Rudolf Scharping . Ringstorff was elected Prime Minister on November 3, 1998. In the spring of 1999 Ringsdorf spoke out in favor of the war against Yugoslavia (the so-called Kosovo war). Until September 19, 2000 he was also Minister of Justice. As such, he dismissed Attorney General Alexander Prechtel in August 1999 . In the state elections in 2002, his government was confirmed, with heavy losses for the PDS and significant gains for the SPD.

In the 2006 state elections, the SPD had to accept a decline in the vote share of around ten percentage points, but was still the strongest party. Since the previous coalition of SPD and PDS received only the narrowest majority with 36 of 71 mandates, Ringstorff and the SPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania decided to offer the CDU in second place a coalition, which was formed on November 7, 2006 with the re-election of Ringstorff. Ringstorff was President of the Federal Council from November 1, 2006 to October 31, 2007 . On August 6, 2008, Ringstorff announced that he would resign as Prime Minister. He wanted to give up his office for reasons of age. On October 6, Erwin Sellering took over the office of Prime Minister as his successor.

Cabinets

• Cabinet page II
• Cabinet Ringstorff I
• Cabinet Ringstorff II
• Cabinet Ringstorff III

Honors

• Order of the Marienland Cross, 2nd class (2000)
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany , Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon (2007)
• Honorary member of the Fritz Reuter Society (2013)
• Honorary member of the Johannes Gillhoff Society (2013)
• Honorary member of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania home association (2015)

literature

• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Ringstorff, Harald . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Wunnicke, Christoph: Harald Ringstorff. From the shipyard to the State Chancellery. Prime Minister in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2018. ISBN 978-3-8012-0526-3 .

Web links

Commons : Harald Ringstorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Harald Ringstorff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Harald Ringstorff in the state bibliography MV
• CV with the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Retrieved November 15, 2015 . 
• Texts, photos and links that complement the Ringstorff biography of Christoph Wunnicke

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Title of the work: Voltammetric investigations on a new use of the stationary mercury electrode for trace analysis .
2. ^ Regional catalog Rostock - results / titledata. Retrieved February 22, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 303/2018 of December 31, 2018, p. 18.
4. ↑ Ringstorff announces resignation on October 3rd , article aufspiegel.de from August 6th, 2008.
5. ↑ Overview of the medal bearers of the Marienland Cross. Retrieved June 28, 2010 . 
6. ↑ Federal Gazette No. 214 of November 16, 2007, page 8029.
7. ↑ Ringstorff becomes an honorary member of the Reuter Society , article on Ostsee-Zeitung.de from April 11, 2013.
8. ↑ Harald Ringstorff honorary member of the new home association MV , article on welt.de from May 27, 2015.