Kurt Beck (born 5 February 1949) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served as the 7th Minister President of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000–01. In May 2006, he succeeded

Matthias Platzeck Matthias Platzeck (born 29 December 1953) is a German politician. He was Minister-President, Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD from November 2005 to April 2006. ...

as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post in September 2008. On 28 September 2012, Beck announced his resignation from the post of minister-president. He was succeeded by social minister Malu Dreyer. Following Peter Struck's death in 2012, Beck – together with Dieter Schulte – became the chair of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation; he served until 2020, when he was replaced with Martin Schulz.

Early life and career

Beck was born in Bad Bergzabern,

, to the bricklayer Oskar Beck and his wife Johanna. Both his parents had their roots in the town Kapsweyer in southern Rhenish Palatinate. He grew up in Steinfeld. From 1963 to 1968, Beck became an electrician. After military duty in 1968 and 1969, he graduated from an evening school in 1972. Since then, he served as an employee representative on

works councils A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

Political career

After joining the SPD in 1972, mainly because of the Party's programme as well as the personality of

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

, Beck became chairman of the SPD of Rhineland Palatinate in 1993 and deputy chairman of the federal party in 2003. He served in this function until 14 May 2006. Beck has been active in local affairs since 1974, when he was first elected a member of the Kreistag. From 1989 to 1994, he was mayor of his hometown Steinfeld. From 1979, he was a directly elected member of the

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

, in which he served as the speaker for social affairs of the

Parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

of the SPD (from 1982 to 1985) and as a member of the governing body of the group from 1985 to 1991, when he was elected chairman.

Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, 1994–2013

On 26 October 1994, Beck was elected Minister President of

, succeeding Rudolf Scharping. He was re-elected three times, in 1996,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

. As Minister President he was known for his centrist approach, which is also apparent from the choice of his coalition partner (the liberal FDP instead of the centre-left Green Party, with which the SPD has recently allied itself). In this respect, he follows the policy of Scharping. In March 2006, Beck's SPD gained an absolute majority in the state elections; Beck offered to continue the coalition but since the FDP declined, the SPD formed a government without a partner. After Edmund Stoiber resigned in 2007, Beck was the senior Minister President in Germany. During his time in office, Beck's decisions in Rhineland-Palatinate to increase efficiency in the state government via administrative reorganisation, and to introduce full-day schooling and free kindergartens, drew national attention. The state also emerged as one of the country’s top economic performers. When the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

closed dozens of camps and barracks with the loss of 100,000 jobs, Beck's government invested heavily in retraining schemes, creating 40,000 new jobs. In 2000 and 2001, Beck was President of the Bundesrat, one of his duties as Minister President. In September 2012, Beck announced his resignation. He had been under pressure for weeks over the bankruptcy of the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

motorsports complex in Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the world's most famous race tracks.

Chairman of the SPD, 2006–2008

When

had to resign for medical reasons in 2006, Beck was officially elected as chairman of the SPD with the approval of 95% of the delegates. He became the party’s fourth chairman in seven years. Beck decided not to join the cabinet and succeed

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

Franz Müntefering because it would have prevented him from criticizing Chancellor Angela Merkel's

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

. According to public opinion polls during his time as party chairman, his possibilities of becoming

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

, if he had run for this office in the 2009 election, had been very limited. According to

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

, only 16% of Germans would have elected him in the hypothetical case of a direct vote against Angela Merkel. During his time in office as party leader, Beck most notably negotiated an agreement with Merkel’s Christian Democrats in April 2017 on a partial

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of national railway

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

's passenger and

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

divisions. Meanwhile, Beck's decision in early 2008 to allow regional cooperation with the left-wing populist Left Party in western German state parliaments caused a rift within his party and triggered a slump in opinion poll ratings for the SPD and him personally. On 7 September 2008, Beck resigned as chairman at a party meeting in Werder, Brandenburg and Frank-Walter Steinmeier was chosen as the SPD candidate for Chancellor in the 2009 election, while Franz Müntefering replaced Beck as chairman after an interim of Steinmeier. At the time, he said that he was a victim of intrigue inside the SPD.

Life after politics

In March 2017, Beck was appointed the government's official commissioner for the victims of the attack at the Christmas market at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz on 19 December 2016. Later that year, together with German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, he presented his final report.

Controversies

Henrico Frank

Near the end of 2006, Beck recommended to Henrico Frank, an unemployed construction worker from

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

, to wash himself and shave so he could get a job. Following a media controversy about Beck's behaviour, Frank declined all jobs offered to him by the state chamber. Later, he was hired as a

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

expert for iMusic TV.

Afghanistan

In April 2007, Beck proposed a peace conference in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

with the inclusion of "moderate

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

". The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, thus accused him of being naïve. He compared the idea of "moderate Taliban" to distinguishing between moderate and radical right-wing extremists in

. The German public mostly ignored the affair.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Boehringer Ingelheim C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer (1861–1939) in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's List of la ...

, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2013)

Non-profit organizations

* Stiftung Hambacher Schloss, Chair of the Advisory Board (since 2020) * European Foundation for the Speyer Cathedral, Chairman of the Board of Trustees * ''Denkwerk Demokratie'', Member of the Advisory Board * Fritz Walter Foundation, Chair of the Advisory Board * Stefan Morsch Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2013) * Stiftung Institut für Herzinfarktforschung (IHF), Member of the Board of Trustees * Stiftung Tausendgut, Member of the Board of TrusteesBoard of Trustees
Stiftung Tausendgut.

Honours and awards

:1983: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany :2001: Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania :2004 Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany : Grand Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

: Grand Cross of the Order Pro Merito Melitensi of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

: Commander of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

of the French Republic :1997: Honorary Master of the Palatine Crafts :2005: Business Award of the Union of medium-sized enterprises : Order of Merit of the Senate of the Republic of Chile : Honorary Citizen of Opole, Poland : Honorary doctorate from Francis Marion University (USA) : Honorary Citizen of the southern Chinese province of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

: Commandeur of the wine fraternity Chevaliers du Tastevin, France

Personal life

Beck is Catholic. He lives with his wife, Roswitha, whom he married in 1968 in Steinfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate. They have one son (Stefan Beck).

References

External links

Interview with the BILD, Part One, German

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Kurt 1949 births Living people People from Bad Bergzabern German Roman Catholics Presidents of the German Bundesrat Members of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate Chairmen of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Minister-presidents of Rhineland Palatinate