Ravindra Gujjula

Ravindra Gujjula (born August 1, 1954 in Kanigiri , India ) is an Indian- German politician ( SPD ). Gujjula was honorary mayor of the city of Altlandsberg in Brandenburg from 1993 to 2003 and a member of the Brandenburg state parliament from 2007 to 2009 .

Life

Gujjula comes from a politically active family. His father was a member of parliament and chairman of the Indian Agricultural Workers' Association, and his mother was general secretary of the Indian Women's Association. At the age of 14 he began to get involved in left-wing youth organizations. He campaigned for free school education and the right to vote from the age of 18 and organized events against the black market sale of scarce baby food and against the Vietnam War . Because of his political activities, he was twice a political prisoner in 1971 and 1972.

In 1973 Gujjula came to the GDR to study medicine. He had already studied business administration at Bhadruka College in Hyderabad from 1972 . On the Herder Institute in Leipzig and Freiberg he first learned the German language and began in 1975 with a degree in medicine at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald . 1980 to 1982 he studied human medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin , from which he graduated as a medical graduate. During his student days he participated in the organization of the ISK (International Student Committee).

After completing his studies, he came to Altlandsberg in 1982, where he completed his compulsory practical year in the district hospital and completed his specialist training as a doctor for internal medicine in 1987. During his specialist training he organized events against the war in the Middle East, against apartheid and for the freedom of Nelson Mandela . He was a critic of the electoral system in the GDR and was dismissed without notice before the fall of the Wall because of a critical letter he wrote to the SED leadership at the time . After a short period of unemployment, he was hired again as a doctor in the outpatient clinic in Altlandsberg shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since 1991 Gujjula has had his own medical practice in Altlandsberg town hall. He has two grown children from his first marriage and has been married to a German for his second marriage since 2009. In 1993 he took on German citizenship.

politics

In the local elections in 1990 he was elected to the Altlandsberg city council, where he acted as chairman of the “Citizens for Altlandsberg” group and until 1993 as chairman of the committee for education and culture. In the mayoral elections in 1993, the non-party Gujjula was elected honorary mayor with 62% of the vote. Because of Gujjula's Indian origins, the election caused a sensation nationwide and internationally. For example, the New York Times reported on his election victory.

In 1998 he joined the SPD and was confirmed in office in the local elections in the same year with 82% of the votes. After the municipal reform in 2003, he was elected by the Altlandsberg local council (= local representative) as honorary mayor of the Altlandsberg district in the city of Altlandsberg, an office that he held until 2019. In the local elections in 2003 he was elected to the district council of the Märkisch-Oderland district. He received the nationwide best result of all SPD district council candidates.

When the SPD member of the state parliament Heiko Müller resigned from the state parliament of Brandenburg , Gujjula moved up on November 1, 2007. Until the end of the fourth legislative period (2009) he was a member of the Committee for Home Affairs and sports policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group. After the state elections in 2009 , he left the state parliament.

literature

• President of the Landtag Brandenburg (ed.): Landtag Brandenburg: Names - Dates - Facts. 4th electoral term 2004–2009 . 3. Edition. Potsdam 2007, p. 73.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Kinzer : Altlandsberg Journal; If Germany has a fever, can this doctor help? In: New York Times. December 21, 1993.
2. ↑ resume on Ravindra Gujjulas homepage; Page "Living - In Germany". accessed on June 22, 2017 A.