Thomas Oppermann (politician)

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Thomas Oppermann (2020)
Thomas Oppermann as Vice President of the German Bundestag in 2019

Thomas Ludwig Albert Oppermann (* 27. April 1954 in Freckenhorst ; † 25. October 2020 in Goettingen ) was a German politician of the SPD and lawyer . He was Vice President of the German Bundestag from October 24, 2017 until his death .

Before that he was chairman of the SPD parliamentary group from December 2013 to September 2017 , from November 2007 to December 2013 first parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group and from March 1998 to March 2003 Lower Saxony's minister for science and culture . After the general elections in 2005 , 2009 , 2013 and 2017, he moved into the Bundestag as a directly elected member.

Life

education and profession

Oppermann was born in 1954 as the son of a dairy master. He attended the Goetheschule Einbeck , where he graduated from high school in 1975 . He then studied German and English at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen without a degree . He refused military service and worked from 1976 to 1978 as a volunteer for the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ASF) in the USA. There he also worked for the field and migrant workers ' union UFW / AFL-CIO . After his return he studied law at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and passed the first state examination in 1983 after just eight semesters . During his studies he was a member and co-founder of the student group based group Law on the Legal Department and member of the Juso -Hochschulgruppe the Student Parliament (StuPa) of the University of Goettingen. In addition to his studies, he also worked temporarily as a night watchman and construction worker. After completing his legal traineeship , he passed the second state examination in law in 1986 , which he passed with distinction . Then he was a judge at the Hanover Administrative Court until 1990 and later at the Braunschweig Administrative Court . From 1988 to 1989 he was the legal representative of the city of Hann. Münden seconded to the local government.

Party and parliamentary career

Oppermann had been a member of the SPD since 1980 and chairman of the SPD sub-district of Göttingen since 1989 .

From 1990 to 2005 he was a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament . In the state elections in 1990 , 1994 and 1998 , he won the direct mandate in the Göttingen-Land constituency ; at the 2003 he was elected via the state list. From 1990 to 1998 he was the legal policy spokesman and from 2003 to 2005 economic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group . From 2001 to 2005 Oppermann was also a member of the district council of the Göttingen district .

Thomas Oppermann has been a member of the German Bundestag since the 2005 Bundestag election . From March 2006 to November 2007 he was the spokesman for the working group and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the secret service investigative committee . On November 26, 2007 he was elected First Parliamentary Managing Director of the SPD parliamentary group. He replaced Olaf Scholz , who moved to the Merkel I cabinet as Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs . From 2007 to 2013 he was chairman of the parliamentary control body . In the 2009 federal election campaign, Oppermann was part of the shadow cabinet of the SPD candidate for Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier . In the 2013 federal election campaign, Peer Steinbrück appointed Oppermann to his team of experts for domestic and legal policy.

Thomas Oppermann next to Angela Merkel and Volker Kauder in the German Bundestag , 2014

Thomas Oppermann always moved into the Bundestag as a directly elected member of the Göttingen constituency . In the 2017 federal election , he received 34.9 percent of the first votes .

On December 16, 2013, 90.81 percent of the SPD MPs elected him as the new chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. Andrea Nahles was elected as his successor on September 27, 2017 .

From 2019 to 2020 Oppermann was on the board of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly . He was also Vice President of the Council of Elders and a full member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Election Committee in the German Bundestag.

Government offices

On March 30, 1998, Oppermann was appointed Minister for Science and Culture to the state government of Lower Saxony ( Schröder III cabinet ) led by Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder . In this office he was also a member of the governments led by his successors Gerhard Glogowski and Sigmar Gabriel ( Cabinet Glogowski , Cabinet Gabriel ). After the SPD lost 14.5 percentage points and its absolute majority in the state elections on February 2, 2003 , the CDU and FDP formed a coalition ( Wulff I cabinet ). The Gabriel government's term of office ended on March 4, 2003.

Edathy affair

In the course of the Edathy affair , Oppermann was repeatedly accused of preventing punishment . After Sigmar Gabriel informed him about an ongoing child pornography investigation against the Bundestag member Sebastian Edathy (SPD), Oppermann called the then BKA boss Jörg Ziercke (SPD) to "have this information [...] confirmed." ". Oppermann later commissioned Michael Hartmann (SPD) to take care of Sebastian Edathy because of his apparently poor health. Edathy says Hartmann warned him about police investigations. Edathy later reported his laptop as stolen, which is why the BKA was unable to examine it for evidence. Oppermann himself denied that he had reported investigations to Hartmann.

Other engagement

Oppermann belonged to the Berlin network and the Seeheimer Kreis and was deputy chairman of the German- Israeli parliamentary group . He belonged to the 1992 class of the “Young Leaders Program” of the Atlantik-Brücke network . At the 43rd Ordinary DFB Bundestag in Frankfurt am Main in September 2019, Oppermann was elected to succeed Klaus Kinkel as chairman of the ethics committee of the German Football Association .

Private

Oppermann had two daughters from his previous marriage as well as a daughter and a son with his partner. He was an Evangelical Lutheran denomination, a passionate football player and hiker. He was also an avid reader.

Thomas Oppermann died on October 25, 2020 after collapsing directly before a live interview for the ZDF broadcast in Berlin and being admitted to the Göttingen University Hospital.

Member of the cabinet of the Lower Saxony state government

Web links

Commons : Thomas Oppermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Niesmann: Politics: This boy wanted to be a minister ... In: Focus Online . January 20, 2014, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Oppermann is dead. Retrieved October 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , November 16, 2014, p. 3.
  4. ^ A b Veit Medick, Christoph Hickmann: The bassist - Obituary for Thomas Oppermann. In: Der Spiegel. October 26, 2020, accessed October 26, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Hop, hop on the job! In: focus.de. Retrieved July 1, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Andreas Niesmann: This boy wanted to be a minister ... In: Focus . No. 4 , January 20, 2014, p. 30th f . ( online [accessed January 28, 2014]).
  7. ↑ Domestic and legal policy: Thomas Oppermann. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013 ; accessed on August 21, 2017 .
  8. ^ Result of the 2017 federal election, constituency 53 (Göttingen). Federal Returning Officer, September 30, 2017, accessed on January 15, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Andrea Nahles elected chairman. In: spdfraktion.de. September 27, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017 .
  10. ^ German Bundestag - MPs. Retrieved October 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Oppermann defends himself against allegations of intrigue. In: zeit.de. December 19, 2014, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  12. ↑ a b press release: Thomas Oppermann on Sebastian Edathy. In: spdfraktion.de. February 13, 2014, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Warning against investigations: Edathy names Hartmann as a source. In: N24.de. December 13, 2014, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Oppermann: Didn't warn Edathy. German Bundestag, July 1, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016 .
  15. ^ Ludger Kühnhardt: Atlantik Brücke: 50 years of German-American partnership , p. 262
  16. ↑ Oppermann is the new chairman of the DFB ethics committee. In: dfb.de. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  17. ↑ bundestag.de: MPs. Thomas Oppermann, SPD
  18. ↑ Louis Lewitan: "That was my salvation" - Interview with Thomas Oppermann: "Staying seated is a loser" . In: Zeit-magazin , No. 42/2015
  19. ↑ At the age of 66 - SPD politician Thomas Oppermann died. In: ZDF . October 26, 2020, accessed October 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Oppermann, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppermann, Thomas Ludwig Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdL, MdB
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Freckenhorst
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2020
Place of death Goettingen