Till Backhaus (born Neuhaus 13 March 1959) is a German politician. As the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

approached its end as a standalone state, Backhaus was one of those who in December 1989 (re-)founded the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

, more than four decades after its suppression. More recently, in 1998 he was appointed regional Minister for Agriculture in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

, a post he retains, making him the longest serving regional minister currently (2025) in office in Germany.

Early life and career

Till Backhaus was born at Neuhaus, roughly 3 km (2 miles) to the east of

Elbe River The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flo ...

which at that time marked the

Inner German border The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West ...

dividing

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

from

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, and which through the 1950s was being increasingly fortified along its eastern bank in order to prevent people escaping from the east to the west. In 1978 Backhaus successfully completed his secondary schooling at nearby Pritzier-Schwechow with a vocational qualification in agro-technology. He spent two years undertaking his

Military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

with the

National People's Army The National People's Army (, ; NVA ) were the armed forces of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (DDR) from 1956 until 1990. The NVA was organized into four branches: the (Ground Forces), the (Navy), the (Air Force) and the (Bord ...

before moving on, in 1980, to the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

where he concluded his studies, in 1985, with a degree in Agricultural engineering. In 1980 he also started working for the Neuhaus Agricultural Production Co-operative, later transferring to the nearby Lübtheen Agricultural Production Co-operative, where he worked as a department head till 1990.

Political career

In December 1989, the month in which even the country's monolithic SED felt the need to participate with the Social Democrats in "round table talks", Backhaus, who hitherto had not engaged in politics, joined the SDP and was a co-founder of its Neuhaus (Elbe) district branch. When, after

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

in October 1990, the eastern and western branches of the SPD came together into a single national party, Backhaus remained an active party leader in the locality. Reflecting administrative boundary changes, he was district party chairman for the SPD in the Hagenow district from 1991 till 1994, and for the Hagenow-Ludwigslust district from 1994 till 2003. At the regional level, between 2003 and 2007 he served as Chairman for

region SPD group and a member of the leadership team between 2005 and 2007. Reflecting his agricultural qualifications and subsequent ministerial responsibilities (see below) he has for many years been a leading spokesman for the regional party on consumer affairs, food and agriculture. Between March and October 1990 Backhaus sat as one of the 91 SPD members of the

's first (and, as thing turned out, last) freely elected National legislative Assembly (''Volkskammer''). At the regional level he has since 1990 sat as a member of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern regional legislative assembly. Between 1990 and 1994 he was elected from the SPD Mecklenburg-Vorpommern regional list, and since 1994 he has represented the "Ludwigslust I" subdivision electoral district within the Mecklenburg-Vorpommernregion). Within the assembly, between 1992 and 1998 he was chairman of the Agriculture Committee, and from 1994 till 1998 of the Agriculture and Nature Protection committee. At the local level he was, between 2004 and 2006, a member of the local council for the Ludwigslust district.

State Minister of Agriculture, 1998–present

After the 1998 regional election Backhaus was offered the position of State Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for

in the regional administration headed up, at that time, by his party colleague Harald Ringstorff. Backhaus accepted the post, and retained it (now with Consumer protection and environmental protection added to the portfolio) it after 7 November 2006 when, controversially, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern SPD entered into a ruling coalition with the CDU (party), following regional election results that had been disappointing for both parties. As one of the state’s representatives at the Bundesrat, Backhaus is a member of the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Consumer Protection and of the Committee on Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Together with Elke Ferner, Wolfgang Jüttner, Ute Vogt and

Klaus Wowereit Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes, 29 ...

, Backhaus co-chaired the SPD’s 2006 national convention in Berlin.

Other activities

* Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, Member of the Supervisory Board * Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mbH, Chairman of the Supervisory Board

''The long word''

is a relatively rural state and the Agriculture ministry has given Backhaus a high ministerial profile in the region. In 1999 his department came up with a legislative proposal which broke records for an unusual reason. The Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (a law on the supervision of beef labelling) is defined using a grammatically valid and usable compound

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

of 63 letters. The word featured in the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

'' until 1996 when it was controversially challenged for the top spot by the creation of a longer word. But for many the word created by Backhaus's ministry was toppled from its position as Germany's longest official word only in 2013 when it was withdrawn from use by the regional assembly because the law it defined had been repealed.

Controversies

In 2015, as the minister responsible, Backhaus was called upon to make a ministerial statement after the (presumably temporary) closure of

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

in the wake of a bird flu scare which had necessitated the precautionary killing of

storks Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout Beak, bills. They belong to the family (biology), family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, suc ...

ducks Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

and a red ibis. Nor was this the first bird flu scare in the region to necessitate ministerial intervention. In the preceding fifteen years his intervention has frequently been invoked in other food, agriculture and environment related scares. A more personal media controversy arose in respect of the Doctorate in Agriculture which Backhaus received from Berlin's Humboldt University in 2001. His dissertation was entitled "Reflections on Grain Production in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 1900 and 2000".''"Betrachtungen zur Getreideproduktion in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern zwischen 1900 und 2000"'' Sources are silent over when the work was started, but public reaction may have been triggered by the fact that by the time he actually received the doctorate Backhaus had already been the regional Minister for Agriculture for more than two years. The Agriculture Scientist Wilhelm Römer went public with his opinion that the dissertation was an "insubstantial compilation" without "formal scientific substance" (''"substanzlos sMachwerk ... er... weder inhaltlich noch formal wissenschaftlichen Ansprüchen ntspräche''). There was also criticism that the dissertation had been supervised in 2000 and 2001 by Norbert Makowski, a distinguished plant-scientist who at the time was alleged to have been undertaking paid consultancy work indirectly involving the ministry.

Personal life

Till Backhaus has three children from two of his three marriages. He married his third wife, Ivonne Menzel, in June 2012. Press attention focused not on her career as a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

, but on her youth and her recent celebrity as a

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes so ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backhaus, Till Members of the 10th Volkskammer Ministers of state governments in Germany Social Democratic Party in the GDR politicians 1959 births Living people University of Rostock alumni People from Lüneburg (district)