Thomas Kufen

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Thomas Kufen (2013)

Thomas Markus Kufen (born August 5, 1973 in Essen ) is a German politician ( CDU ) and Lord Mayor of the city ​​of Essen since October 2015 . Before that, he was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2000 to 2005 and again from 2012 to October 21, 2015 and from 2005 to 2010 integration officer of the then state government of Rüttgers .

Career

Thomas Kufen with Prime Minister Armin Laschet and members of the Essen Fire Brigade at the NRW Day 2018 in Essen

Professional background

After obtaining his technical college entrance qualification in 1991, Thomas Kufen completed an apprenticeship as an office clerk by 1994 and was a commercial clerk in his parents' medium-sized company in Essen from 1994 to 2000. In the meantime, he did military service in the Gustav Heinemann barracks in Essen with the 990 telecommunications regiment from July 1995 to May 1996 .

Political party

From 1988 to 2008 he was a member of the Junge Union ; since 1989 he has been a member of the CDU. From 1991 to 1997 he was chairman of the Junge Union Essen and from 1996 to 2002 chairman of the Junge Union Ruhrgebiet. Between 1994 and 1999 he was also a member of District Representation IV in the north-west of Essen. He has been a member of the Essen City Council since 1999 and chairman of the CDU parliamentary group since 2009. In the CDU Essen he was chairman of the CDU Borbeck from 2003 to March 2010 and deputy chairman of the CDU Essen from 2005 to 2011. Since 2006 he has been deputy chairman of the CDU Ruhr and since 2012 a member of the state board of the CDU NRW .

From 2000 to 2005 he was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament ; From 2002 to 2005 he was a member of the parliamentary committee of the CDU parliamentary group. In addition, during his time in the state parliament he was migration policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, employee of the cross-factional integration offensive North Rhine-Westphalia as well as deputy chairman of the German-Turkish parliamentary group North Rhine-Westphalia and advisory board member of the state center for immigration North Rhine-Westphalia in Solingen. Thomas Kufen was a co-founder of the German-Turkish Forum of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia, founded in 1997, and was its deputy chairman until 2010. From 2002 to 2013 he was a member of the German CDU's conference of expatriates.

In 2004 he was a member of the 12th Federal Assembly for the election of the Federal President and in 2009 and 2012 a deputy member of the 13th and 15th Federal Assemblies, respectively.

From 2005 to 2010, Kufen was appointed by Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers , integration officer of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and chairman of the state advisory board for issues relating to displaced persons, refugees and repatriates at the Ministry for Generations, Family, Women and Integration and a member of the board of trustees of the state foundation Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus in Düsseldorf . He was a member of the state advisory board and the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus board of trustees as a member of the state parliament from 2000 to 2005. Since 2006 he has also been deputy chairman of the Foundation for Turkish Studies and Integration Research in Essen.

In the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2012 , Kufen moved back into the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia via state list position 11 of the CDU; after assuming the office of mayor, he left the state parliament on October 21, 2015.

In March 2014, Kufen was elected mayor candidate for mayor election 2015 by the CDU Essen with 99% of all votes. In the election on September 13, 2015, he received 42.5% of the valid votes. Since Reinhard Pass ( SPD ) was also able to win less than half of the votes, there was a runoff between the two candidates. Kufen was elected Lord Mayor (and successor to Pass) on September 27, 2015 with 62.6% of the votes. He took up his post as Lord Mayor of Essen on October 21, 2015.

Private

Kufen has two older siblings. On December 6, 2015, he entered into a registered civil partnership with his long-term partner. The couple live in Essen-Schönebeck .

Web links

Commons : Thomas Kufen  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. Vita von Kufen at www.essen.de , accessed on August 24, 2019
  2. CDU board wants skids as OB candidate . CDU Essen press release of September 30, 2014, accessed on January 23, 2016.
  3. Mayor-in election 2015: final result . Website of the city of Essen, accessed on September 27, 2015.
  4. ^ Runoff election for the Mayor 2015: final result . Website of the city of Essen, accessed on September 27, 2015.
  5. Gerd Niewerth, Martin Spletter: Essen's Lord Mayor Thomas Kufen married . derWesten.de , December 7, 2015, accessed on January 23, 2016.