Education
After his Abitur and military service, Ringstorff studied Chemistry at the University of Rostock. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.
After his Abitur and military service, Ringstorff studied Chemistry at the University of Rostock. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.
He headed a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and PDS (since 2007 the Left Party, Die Linke) from 1998 until 2006, and subsequently headed a coalition between the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Christian Democratic Union. He was the 61st President of the Bundesrat in 2006/07. Afterwards he worked as a chemist for the Rostock dockyards. From 1987 to 1990 he was director of the branch office of the VEB Kali-Chemie ("people"s enterprise for potash chemistry").
From 1990 to 2003 he was chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In between he was Minister for Economic and European Affairs and vice-minister-president in a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Union under minister-president Berndt Seite (Christian Democratic Union). In 1998, the Social Democratic Party of Germany agreed to form a coalition with the PDS (now Left Party), a move controversial within the party.
Ringstorff was elected minister-president His coalition government was re-elected in 2002.
After the elections of 2006, he decided to switch to a coalition with the Christian Democratic Union, which would have a more comfortable majority in parliament.
On 6 August 2008 Ringstorff let it be known that he wished to resign as minister-president because of his age. On 6 October he was succeeded in the office by Erwin Sellering.
In 1989 Ringstorff was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party in the German Democratic Republic and a member of the freely elected Volkskammer of 1990. Since 1990 Ringstorff has been a member of the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where he served as parliamentary leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1990–1994 and 1996-1998.