Karin Rätzel

Karin Rätzel (born March 29, 1947 in Forst (Lausitz) ) is a former local politician who temporarily belonged to the SPD and was Lord Mayor of Cottbus from 2002 to 2006 .

Rätzel initially worked as a wholesale clerk after graduating from high school , which she passed in 1965, and after moving from Forst to Cottbus in 1970, she worked there in the city's data processing center. In 1971 she joined the college in domestic trade from before 1977 at the Technical University of Dresden graduated as Dipl. Ing.- economist ended successfully. In 1985 she became a technical director at VEB engineering office and rationalization. After the fall of the Berlin Wall she organized the privatization of a state-owned company in Senftenberg and in 1991 became commercial director of the building management company Cottbus GmbH. From 1994 she was assistant for finances in Cottbus before she was voted out by the city ​​council in 2000 . The mayor at the time, Waldemar Kleinschmidt (CDU), applied to vote against both the alderman Karin Rätzel (then SPD) and the alderman for construction, Gisela Kraft (SPD), on the grounds of the completely broken relationship of trust.

In 2002 Karin Rätzel stood as a non-party candidate for the office of Lord Mayor of Cottbus and won the runoff election with over 66% of the votes against Markus Derling (CDU). She became the official successor of Waldemar Kleinschmidt. The election of Karin Rätzel came as a surprise to the city council. There were always crises in the cooperation. Ultimately, the city council decided to carry out a referendum on her removal. The mayor was accused by the city council of an authoritarian, undemocratic leadership style, deliberate disinformation of the parliamentarians and incompetent management in important economic projects.

On July 2, 2006, the referendum took place to dismiss Karin Rätzel as mayor. With a turnout of 35.60% and 89.63% of the votes cast, she was voted out on July 6th.

Rätzel is divorced and the mother of two sons.