Matthias W. Birkwald (born 28 September 1961) is a German politician ( The Left). Since October 2009 he has been a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

Education and early career

Matthias W. Birkwald was born in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state d ...

. He graduated from the Municipal High School in

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brü ...

Lechenich Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brü ...

in 1981 and studied Political Science, Sociology, Philosophy and Political Economy in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

. He achieved a degree in 1990 as a graduate social scientist.Matthias W. Birkwald, Die Linke
Bundestag.de Especially after his studies, Birkwald was involved in state and federal politics, was a member of the Young Democrats / Young Left NRW, the

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the '' Honorverse' ...

and the WASG. He ran several times for a seat in the state parliament of NRW and in the Bundestag. From 2003 to 2005, Matthias Birkwald was a personal assistant to the

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Senator for social affairs, health and consumer protection,

Heidi Knake-Werner Heidi Knake-Werner is a German politician (Die Linke). She served as a member of the German parliament (''"Bundestag"'') between 1994 and 2002. Between 2002 and 2009 she was one of Berlin's more high-profile senators. Life Provenance and ear ...

, responsible for social affairs and migration. From 2005 to 2009, he served as bureau chief for

Lothar Bisky Lothar Bisky (17 August 1941 13 August 2013) was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of The Left ...

in the German Bundestag.

Political career

From 1980 to 1996 Birkwald was a member of Young Democrats, who were until the turn of 1982 the youth association of the FDP. In 1986 he joined the

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: ''Industriegewerkschaft Metall'', "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of Ge ...

trade union. From 1988 to 1990, Matthias Birkwald was a member of the renewal movement of the

German Communist Party The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party. Hi ...

in Cologne and in the Rhineland district. From 1990 to 1994 he served as full-time youth education officer and honorary state manager of the Young Democrats / Young Left NRW. Since the end of 1993, he has been a member of the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS), a member of the WASG since 2005, and since the party's rebuilding, he is now a member of The Left Party. In the PDS, he held several delegate mandates and 1994 campaign director of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Association. From 1994 to 2002 he was a research assistant to the PDS parliamentary group. Birkwald was the first direct candidate in the federal election in 1994 in Cologne's southwest. In 2000, he joined the PDS as a direct candidate for the NRW state election in Cologne and on the state list. In the federal elections in 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2013 and in the state election in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2005, he was again direct candidate of the PDS and the Left respectively in the constituency of

Cologne II Cologne II (german: Köln II) is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituen ...

and the district constituency Cologne I. At the merger convention of the party Die Linke in June 2007, Matthias Birkwald participated as a delegate of the Federal Working Group on Citizens' Rights and Democracy. Within the Left, Birkwald has joined the Socialist Left. He acted in the working group "For a modern repression-free, needs-covering social minimum income security" and is committed to a "solidary minimum pension", whose central foundations he developed. In the federal election on 27 September 2009, Matthias Birkwald moved to the state list of North Rhine-Westphalia in the German Bundestag. He became a full member and chairman of the Left in the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs and pension policy spokesman of his group. Also in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

he was re-elected. Since November 2014 he has been the parliamentary director of the parliamentary group of the Left in the German Bundestag.

Works

* with

Christoph Butterwegge Christoph Butterwegge (born 26 January 1951) is a German political scientist and poverty researcher. From 1998 to 2016 he was Professor of Political Science at the Institute for Comparative Education and Social Sciences at the Humanities Faculty ...

& Gerd Bosbach (ed.): ''Armut im Alter. Probleme und Perspektiven der sozialen Sicherung'' (''Poverty in old age. Problems and perspectives of social protection''). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2012,

References

External links

*
Profile of the parliamentary group of the Left in the Bundestag

Matthias Birkwald
a
abgeordnetenwatch.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkwald, Matthias 1961 births Living people People from Münster German Communist Party politicians Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag for The Left