Niels Jonas

Niels Jonas (born March 14, 1943 in Schleswig ) is a German lawyer, political advisor and from 1995 to 2002 he was State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt under Prime Minister Reinhard Höppner . There he was responsible for media policy.

Life

Jonas is the youngest son of the farmer Heinrich Jonas and his wife Erika, b. von Patow from Mallenchen and brother of the historian Erasmus Jonas . He attended the cathedral grammar school in Schleswig from 1953 until his Abitur in 1962. After completing his military service, he began studying law and political science in Kiel and Marburg . He graduated in 1969 with the 1st state examination . He then completed in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg , the clerkship . During this time he became a member of the SPD in 1970 , attracted by Willy Brandt's offer to young people to “ dare more democracy ”. Immediately after passing the 2nd state examination, Niels Jonas joined the Hamburg State Service in 1972. In the early days he worked in different functions. From 1974 to 1975 he worked in Bonn as a consultant in the Hamburg state representation at the federal government . He then moved to the Senate Chancellery as a consultant for constitutional and media affairs and as managing director for matters of the German Association of Cities . In the course of this professional phase he married Anke Jonas, b. Bockwoldt. There were two children from this marriage. The family's residence is Pinneberg near Hamburg.

Professional activity

Since his legal clerkship, Niels Jonas has been personally interested in policy advice at the interface between politics and administration. From 1979 to 1983, he was the head of the presidential department under the Senator for Economic Affairs Jürgen Steinert at the Hamburg Economic Authority. Later he was particularly involved in political advice when he took over the management of the state representation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg at the federal government in Bonn from 1985 to 1989. He then returned to the Senate Chancellery in Hamburg as head of the planning staff at the First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Henning Voscherau . He gave up this task in 1995 when Prime Minister Reinhard Höppner appointed him head of the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt in Magdeburg and at the same time appointed him State Secretary . During his time as head of the State Chancellery from 1995 to 2002, government work under Prime Minister Höppner was shaped by the status of a minority government , which required a particularly high level of coordination and coordination in the State Chancellery, and which is unique in the constitutional history of the Federal Republic of Germany in this length .

As head of the State Chancellery, Niels Jonas was responsible in particular for media policy in Saxony-Anhalt . In 1998 he played a key role in the creation of the State Treaty on the establishment of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH because he was convinced that networking the media policy of the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia would provide additional impetus for the entire media development in Central Germany. In this context, Niels Jonas laid essential foundations for the expansion of the city of Halle an der Saale as a media location. Niels Jonas was particularly involved in media politics from 1995 to 2002 as a member of the television council of ZDF and from 2001 to 2012 as a member of the program council of ARTE Deutschland GmbH.

In addition, he was particularly interested in the Jonas Family Foundation in Berlin, whose co-founder in 1885 was his grandfather Fritz Jonas . From 1986 to 2009 Niels Jonas was the foundation's curator with the primary goal of promoting the cultural heritage of the Jonas family. For 15 years - until 2017 - Niels Jonas was on the board of the Pinneberger Förderverein Drostei . Today he is vice chairman of the support group of the Berlin Knoblauchhaus museum and vice chairman of the Freundeskreis Nicolaihaus Berlin eV

Publications

• Niels Jonas, “The Participation of the States in the Federal Council”, State Center for Civic Education, Hamburg, 1977
• Hartmut Hohlbein / Niels Jonas, “Hamburg's new district administration law”, State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 1978
• Niels Jonas, "On the state elections 2002 in Saxony-Anhalt - a review", yearbook for politics and society in Saxony-Anhalt, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2003
• Niels Jonas: The theologian and preacher Ludwig Jonas, friend and estate administrator of Friedrich Schleiermacher , Writings of the Freundeskreis Nicolaihaus Berlin eV, Volume 1, 2019

Contribution to publications

• "Ilse Jonas - A painter from Berlin", publisher Jonas'sche Family Foundation, Wachholtz Verlag, 2008
• Marlies Ebert u. Uwe Hecker “The Nicolaihaus - Brüderstraße 13 in Berlin”, publisher Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Nicolai-Verlag, 2006
• "Culture - a long way - the history of Landdrostei Pinneberg", author Dieter Beig, publisher Förderverein Landdrostei Pinneberg e. V., Wachholtz Verlag, 2007, new edition 2016
• Timo Grunden, "Political Advice in the Courtyard of Power", Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2009.