Citizenship German Role German Politician Name Hubertus Heil | Children 2 Nationality Germany | |
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Alma mater University of PotsdamUniversity of Hagen Profiles | ||
Journal interview hubertus heil spd generalsekret r
Hubertus Heil (born 3 November 1972 in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony) is a German politician. In 2005 he became general secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In September 2009, after immense losses for the SPD during the German federal election, Heil announced his resignation from this position for November. Andrea Nahles succeeded him as general secretary in November 2009. After Katarina Barley's appoinment as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, he succeeded her as General-Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany on the 2 June 2017.
Contents
- Journal interview hubertus heil spd generalsekret r
- Spd florian pronold und hubertus heil am 27 09 2013
- Political career
- Member of the German Bundestag 1998present
- Political positions
- Personal life
- Other activities
- References
After receiving his Abitur in 1992 Heil first served his Zivildienst, then began studying sociology and political science at the University of Potsdam and the FernUniversität Hagen in 1995.
Spd florian pronold und hubertus heil am 27 09 2013
Political career
Hubertus Heil joined the SPD in 1988. At first he was active at the Jusos and he was their chairman in the district of Braunschweig from 1991 to 1995. From 1995 to 1997 Heil was executive director of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Arbeitnehmerfragen, a leftist caucus in the SPD, representing the workers' wing of the party, although he was reputed to belong to the undogmatical reform socialist wing during his Juso time.
Today Heil serves as chairman of the SPD in Braunschweig.
Member of the German Bundestag, 1998–present
Heil has been a member of the Bundestag since the 1998 German elections, representing the electoral district of Gifhorn-Peine. Between 1998 and 2005, he was a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the SPD parliamentary group’s spokesperson for telecommunications and postal services from 2003. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the executive board of the SPD parliamentary group under the leadership of chairman Franz Müntefering from 2002 to 2004.
In November 2005 the then designated party leader Matthias Platzeck proposed the relatively unknown Heil as candidate for the post of secretary general, after Franz Müntefering had resigned as SPD chairman and the elected secretary general Andrea Nahles did not take office. Heil was elected new secretary general of the SPD, but he received only 61.2 percent of the votes, about 20 percent less than his predecessor Klaus Uwe Benneter. He later served under Platzeck (2005-2006) as well as under his successors Kurt Beck (2006-2008) and Müntefering (2008-2009). During that time, he oversaw the drafing process of the party’s Hamburg Program, which has been the party platform since 2007.
Between 2009 and 2017, Heil served as deputy chairman of the SPD’s parliamentary group, under the leadership of successive chairmen Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2019-2013) and Thomas Oppermann (2013-2017). In this capacity, he was a member of the working groups on energy policy and municipal policy from 2009 until 2013. He was also an advisory member of the Commission for Fundamental Values of the Executive Committee of the SPD, a body led by Gesine Schwan.
In the negotiations to form a grand coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2013 national elections, Heil led the SPD delegation in the working group on economic affairs; his co-chair from the CDU/CSU was Ilse Aigner. Ahead of the 2017 elections, he contributed to the manifesto of SPD candidate Martin Schulz.
Political positions
Heil has described himself as an anti-communist.
In 2012, Heil proposed a special panel in the Federal Chancellery to help overcome professional skill shortages, comprising representatives of industry, unions as well as the federal labor agency and regional and community associations.
Personal life
Heil is married to lawyer Solveig Orlowski, who has been heading the Berlin office of the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM) since 2005. The couple has two children. His brother Georg Heil is a journalist with public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk.