Kajo Wasserhövel

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Kajo Wasserhövel, Berlin 2015

Karl-Josef "Kajo" Wasserhövel (born August 17, 1962 in Aachen ) is a German politician ( SPD ).

education

After attending the elementary school in Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt and the St.-Georg-Gymnasium in Bocholt, Wasserhövel graduated from high school in 1983. After that he performed until 1985 his community service in mobile elderly of the workers' welfare in Bocholt and graduated from 1985 to 1991, a master's -Studies of Modern History , Philosophy and Sociology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster .

Politics and profession

Kajo Wasserhövel has been a member of the SPD since 1978. In the early 1980s he was involved in peace initiatives and in the Bocholt local branch of Amnesty International . From 1987 to 1989 he belonged as a representative of the Marxist Freudenberg Circle (to which the " Stamokap " - Jusos were assigned) the federal board of the Juso university groups , which at that time was still called the AK University or Federal Coordination Committee . In 1988/89 he was a political advisor at the AStA at the University of Münster for the Juso university group .

From 1991 to 1995, Wasserhövel headed the secretariat of the Juso district of Western Westphalia as a full-time youth education officer . Since the mid-1990s, he has been one of Franz Müntefering's closest collaborators , and he has accompanied his political career stages throughout. In 1995 he was a speechwriter for Müntefering, who held the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministerial Office for Labor, Health and Social Affairs in Düsseldorf . From 1995 to 1998 he worked for the SPD federal manager Franz Müntefering as a personal advisor in Bonn . From 1998 to 1999 he headed the office of the Minister of Construction and Transport Müntefering. After he was elected general secretary of the SPD in October 1999 , Wasserhövel was his office manager and head of the executive secretariat of the SPD party executive in Berlin until September 2002 . In October 2002 Müntefering became parliamentary group leader of the SPD in the Bundestag and Wasserhövel continued to organize his office. He also acted as head of the planning group of the SPD parliamentary group.

On March 22, 2004, he was appointed Federal Managing Director of the SPD at the suggestion of his long-term mentor . "A quiet organizer of power", wrote Bettina Vestring in the Berliner Zeitung about a portrait of Wasserhövel and described his discreet demeanor:

“He likes to be far back in the hall. Quiet and inconspicuous, in a discreet, dark gray suit, he listens to the party conference speeches. Only those who know him come up to him, exchange a few quiet words, then make room for the next. Kajo Wasserhövel, the future federal manager of the SPD, does not value public attention. 'He's very precise, very discreet and very down to earth,' describes one comrade. 'But above all he is Müntefering's right-hand man.' "

In June 2005, Wasserhövel became head of the SPD's election campaign for the early federal election on September 18, 2005: "And certainly Karl-Josef Wasserhövel, known as Kajo, at 42 years old has one of the most ungrateful jobs that you can smile at in Germany at the moment", wrote Christoph Schwennicke in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . “On the other hand: He wanted it that way. Wasserhövel has been part of Franz Müntefering for years, just like his white pack of cigarillos. Wasserhövel has gone from being a porter to coordinating a quick election. "

For years he has been referred to by political observers as the “ SPD spin doctor ”. The announcement by SPD party leader Müntefering that he would propose Wasserhövel as future general secretary of the party sparked resistance in October 2005 within the left party groups, which preferred the Bundestag member Andrea Nahles for this position. The objection to Wasserhövel was that although he had done a great job as an election campaign organizer, he was too "apolitical" to be able to lead the party as general secretary programmatically. So he was defeated in the preliminary decision in the party executive with 23 to 14 votes. Thereupon his supporter Franz Müntefering declared that he would no longer run as federal chairman. After Nahles announced that she would renounce the post of general secretary, the designated SPD party leader Matthias Platzeck proposed the MP Hubertus Heil as the new general secretary.

Wasserhövel followed Müntefering in November 2005 as a permanent state secretary to the Federal Ministry of Labor. The former Brandenburg State Secretary Martin Gorholt succeeded Wasserhövel as Federal Managing Director . On September 15, 2008 Wasserhövel was again Federal Managing Director; his successor in the office of State Secretary was the former DGB executive secretary Günther Horzetzky .

Wasserhövel ran as a direct candidate in the Berlin constituency of Treptow-Köpenick in the 2009 Bundestag election . However, Wasserhövel only reached third place in this constituency behind Gregor Gysi and Niels Korte and thus clearly missed the mandate. On November 15, 2009, Wasserhövel handed over the office of SPD Federal Managing Director to Astrid Klug's successor .

In April 2010 he founded the agency for strategy consulting Elephantlogic .

Since 2016, Kajo Wasserhövel has also been the chairman of the Article 1 - Initiative for Human Dignity eV association

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bettina Vestring: A Quiet Organizer of Power , Berliner Zeitung, March 19, 2004
  2. ↑ Christoph Schwennicke: The man behind Müntefering , Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 2, 2005
  3. ^ Result of the direct mandates in Berlin, in Berliner Morgenpost of September 27, 2009
  4. ↑ Kajo Wasserhövel ( Memento from September 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ http://www.elephantlogic.de
  6. ↑ https://artikel-eins.de/
personal data
SURNAME Wasserhövel, Kajo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wasserhövel, Karl-Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen