Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
Which political party did Matthias Platzeck belong to from 1989 to 1990?
Matthias Platzeck Matthias Platzeck ( born 29 December 1953 ) is a German politician . He was Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the SPD from November 2005 to April 2006 . On 29 July 2013 Platzeck announced his resignation from his office in August for health reasons . Early life and education . Platzeck was born in Potsdam , the son of a physician and a medical-technical assistant . After attending Polytechnic Secondary School in Potsdam from 1960 to 1966 , he went through Extended Secondary School in Kleinmachnow . Following his Abitur in 1972 and military service he studied biomedical cybernetics at the Technische Universität Ilmenau from 1974 onward . After his diploma in 1979 , Platzeck worked at the institute for hygiene in Karl-Marx-Stadt ( today Chemnitz ) in 1979–1980 and the general hospital in Bad Freienwalde from 1980 to 1982 . From 1982 to 1990 he was head of the department for environmental hygiene at the agency for hygiene in Potsdam . Political career . Platzeck co-founded ARGUS , a Potsdam environmental organization , with and at the initiative of Carola Stabe in April 1988 . In April 1989 , he joined the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany but left it shortly thereafter . He represented ARGUS at the founding of the Grüne Liga association of local environmental organizations in East Germany in November 1989 . During the political Wende of 1989–1990 that led to German Reunification he was their speaker at the East German Round Table talks . From February to April 1990 he represented the oppositional radical Green Party as Minister without Portfolio in the last non-elected but legitimate government of the GDR . Platzeck was elected member of the Volkskammer in 1990 for the Green Party and was parliamentary secretary of the joined faction of Greens and Bündnis 90 ( Alliance 90 ) . In October 1990 Platzeck became a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg for Bündnis 90 ( Alliance 90 ) . He was Minister for the Environment in a coalition government with the SPD and FDP from 1990 to 1994 , when the coalition broke up . Rejecting the merger of his party with the West German Green Party he did not join the new party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in 1993 . Instead , he became a member of the SPD on 6 June 1995 . After the break of the Brandenburg coalition in 1994 Platzeck left his faction and remained Minister for the Environment under Minister-president Manfred Stolpe . He became popular nationwide for organizing public support for the affected population during a flood of the Oder river in 1997 . In 1998 he was elected mayor of Brandenburgs capital Potsdam and rejected the offer of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to join the federal cabinet . In 2000 Platzeck was elected chairman of the SPD in Brandenburg and in 2002 he succeeded Manfred Stolpe as Minister-president . He was re-elected to the Landtag ( state parliament ) in 2004 . With the SPD as strongest political force he could continue his coalition with the CDU . He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2004/05 . When Franz Müntefering resigned as party chairman of the SPD because of internal conflicts , Platzeck was elected party chairman on 15 November 2005 with an overwhelming majority of 99.8 percent . In January , February and April 2006 Platzeck suffered three severe hearing losses . Due to his ill health he resigned from his post as chairman on 10 April 2006 , only five months after becoming chairman . Life after politics . Both in 2015 and 2016 , Platzeck and Bodo Ramelow were appointed as unpaid arbitrators for negotiations between Deutsche Bahn and the German Train Drivers Union ( GDL ) . In 2016 , he also served as unpaid arbitrator for negotiations between German airline Lufthansa and its flight attendants union . From 2018 until 2019 , Platzeck co-chaired the German governments so-called coal commission , which is tasked to develop a masterplan before the end of the year on how to phase-out coal and create a new economic perspective for the countrys coal-mining regions . In 2019 , Platzeck was appointed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior , Building and Community to chair the committee that oversaw the preparations for the 30th anniversary of German reunification . In addition , Platzeck holds a variety of paid and unpaid positions , including the following : - LEIPA Georg Leinfelder GmbH , chairman of the supervisory board ( since 2015 ) - German-Russian Forum , Chairman - Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Garrison Church , member of the board of trustees - Internationales Bildungs- und Begegnungswerk ( IBB ) , member of the board of trustees - Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg ( JFBB ) , member of the advisory board - Friedrich Ebert Foundation ( FES ) , member of the board - Schloss Neuhardenberg Foundation , member of the board of trustees Political positions and controversy . Platzeck caused controversy in August 2010 when he called the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 an Anschluss , the word used by Adolf Hitler to defend the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 . In response , Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Platzecks choice of words and argued that reunification was precisely what east Germans had wanted , not a process forced upon them . On 18 November 2014 , Platzeck called for the international legitimization of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , drawing criticism . His comparison of the deployment of the Bundeswehr to Lithuania as part of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence with Operation Barbarossa was also criticized . Personal life . From 1978 to 1984 , Platzeck was married to Ute Bankwitz with whom he has three daughters . In 2007 , he married Jeanette Jesorka . The ceremony took place one year later in Temmen-Ringenwalde , with guests including Frank-Walter Steinmeier , Günther Jauch and Andreas Dresen . Book . Matthias Platzeck : Zukunft braucht Herkunft . Deutsche Fragen , ostdeutsche Antworten . Hoffmann und Campe , Hamburg 2009 , References . - Matthias Platzeck löst mit seiner historischen These zur Integration der Linken Irritationen aus , Märkische Allgemeine , 1 . November 2009 - Thorsten Metzner : In zwei Wochen soll klar sein , ob Dreher geht . In : Der Tagesspiegel , 25 . November 1998 External links . - Official biography ( German ) - Short official biography - Homepage