Mark Rackles

Mark Rackles (born September 26, 1966 in Heilbronn ) is a German political official ( SPD ). From December 2011 to April 2019 he was State Secretary in the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science , which since December 2016 has been called the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family because of the discontinuation of responsibility for science .

Life

After graduating from the Kurfürst-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Heidelberg in 1986 , Rackles completed community service with the German Red Cross . In 1988 he moved to Berlin, where he began studying business administration and political science at the Free University of Berlin . In 1994 he graduated with a diploma in political science and in 1996 with a diploma in business administration.

From 1996 Rackles worked as an employee of a management consultancy. In 2000 he moved to the service of the State of Berlin and became an employee in the Senate Chancellery . From 2007 until his appointment as State Secretary, he headed the European Policy Department there.

Rackles joined the SPD in 1986. In the Berlin regional association he has been a member of the state executive committee since 2006. Between 2010 and the party congress in June 2018, he was one of the four deputy chairmen - initially under Michael Müller until 2012, but then again from 2014 under Jan Stöß . From 2004 to 2012 he was spokesman for the SPD left in Berlin.

In December 2011 Rackles was appointed State Secretary for Education in the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science led by Sandra Scheeres (since December 2016 Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family ). He was released in April 2019 and given temporary retirement. Rackles himself stated that although he did not suffer from burn-out, he had asked himself how long he could still do the workload. He has no new professional task in mind, but will first take care of his parents and have more time for politics.

His successor was the former press spokeswoman for the Senate Administration Beate Stoffers .

Mark Rackles is married with three children.