Background
PLATZECK, Matthias was born on December 29, 1953 in Potsdam.
PLATZECK, Matthias was born on December 29, 1953 in Potsdam.
Technical College, Ilmenau, biomedical cybernetics, 1974-1979. Academy for Medical Education, Berlin, post-graduate studies in Environmental Health, 1982-1987.
He was Minister-President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from November 2005 to April 2006. On July 29, 2013 he announced that he would resign from his office in August for health reasons. Private life After his diploma in 1978 Platzeck worked at the institute for hygiene in Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz) and the general hospital in Bad Freienwalde.
From 1982 to 1990 he was head of the department for environmental hygiene at the agency for hygiene in Potsdam.
From 1978 to 1984 Platzeck was married to Ute Bankwitz. They have three daughters.
Political career Platzeck represented ARGUS, a Potsdam environmental organization he had co-founded with and at the initiative of Carola Stabe, at the founding of the Grüne Liga association of local environmental organizations in East Germany in 1989. 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 German Democratic Republic. He was Minister for the Environment in a coalition government with Social Democratic Party of Germany and Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) from 1990 to 1994 when the coalition broke up.
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 Brandenburg"s capital Potsdam and rejected the offer of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to join the federal cabinet. In 2000 Platzeck was elected chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Brandenburg and in 2002 he succeeded Manfred Stolpe as Minister-president
His was re-elected to the Landtag (state parliament) in 2004.
He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2004/05. 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.
During the political "Wende" 1989/90 that led to German Reunification he was their speaker at the nationwide roundtable talks. Rejecting the merger of his party with the West German Green Party he did not join the new party Bündnis 90/Die The Greens in 1993. With the Social Democratic Party of Germany as strongest political force he could continue his coalition with the Christian Democratic Union. When Franz Müntefering resigned as party chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany because of internal conflicts, Platzeck was elected party chairman on November 15, 2005 with an overwhelming majority of 99.4 percent.
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). Instead, he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1995.