Heinz Buschkowsky (born 31 July 1948) is a German

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD) politician and former Mayor of the

Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Born in Berlin in the aftermath of the Second World War, Buschkowsky is the son of a locksmith and a secretary originally from Silesia. The family lived in a one-room basement apartment in Berlin-Rudow and later moved to

Gropiusstadt Gropiusstadt () is a locality () within the Berlin borough () of Neukölln. It was named after the architect who projected the complex: Walter Gropius. History Building of the quarter, initially named Britz-Buckow-Rudow and projected in a modernis ...

. After graduating, the young Buschkowsky entered the civil service and from 1973 worked in several Senate bodies. Then, in 1979, representing the SPD, he was elected to the Neukölln borough council. In 1985 he became leader of the SPD political group of the council, in which he belonged to the "Britzer circle", an influential faction on the right of the Berlin SPD. In 1991 and 1992 he was district mayor, from 1992 to 1999 deputy mayor and district councillor responsible for Finance, Personnel, and Sports, later for Youth and Sports, and from 1999 to 2001 he was also responsible for Health and Environment. On 1 December 2001, he became District Mayor of Berlin-Neukölln and Head of Finance, Economics, and Sport. In 2004, Buschkowsky became a national figure with his thesis "Multiculturalism has Failed", written as mayor of a Berlin district with a high immigrant population. He placed a strong emphasis on commitment to good education of the children and young people of non-German origins, supported by kindergartens and all-day schools, an approach which he proposed should be adopted nationally. In 2008, Buschkowsky defined himself as a follower of

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was the longest ...

, who had brought him into the SPD. He went on to become a member of the Federal Council of the SPD. On 30 September 2010, the Neukölln SPD unanimously chose Buschkowsky as its lead candidate for the 2011 city election, in which he was confirmed as district mayor. He is an outspoken proponent of government support for

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

of the immigrant population. His 2012 book ''Neukölln ist überall'', describing the integration problems in Neukölln became a bestseller in Germany.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buschkowsky, Heinz Mayors of places in Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians 1948 births Living people