Markus Meckel
Member of the German Bundestag
Pastor, former foreign minister
Member of the German Bundestag from Brandenburg
Constituency 057 (Uckermark -Barnim I)
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Born on 18 August 1952 in Müncheberg/Brandenburg; Protestant; divorced, five children. From 1959 to 1967 attended general secondary school and from 1967 to 1969 academic high school, was forced to leave school for political reasons. From 1969 to 1971 attended Potsdam-Hermannswerder Church College, obtained school- leaving certificate giving right of entry to university; from 1971 to 1978 studied theology in Naumburg and Berlin.
From 1980 to 1988 Protestant curate and pastor in Vipperow/Müritz. From 1988 to 1990 head of the ecumenical education centre in Niederndodeleben near Madgeburg. From 1988 to 1989 delegate to the Ecumenical Assembly in the GDR and the European Ecumenical Assembly in Basel.
Political work in the opposition since the 1970s, involved in numerous initiatives and in efforts to link political groups; together with Martin Gutzeit initiated the founding of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR (SDP); represented the SDP at the Central Round Table; since the founding of the SDP on 7 October 1989 second spokesman of the SDP; from February to September 1990 deputy chairman, from April to June 1990 acting chairman of the SPD East.
Member of the People's Chamber of the GDR from 18 March to 2 October 1990, from April to August 1990 Foreign Minister of the GDR. Member of the German Bundestag since 1990; member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; substitute member of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union; since 1994 chairman of the German-Polish parliamentary friendship group; spokesman of the Eastern Central European discussion group of the SPD parliamentary group; since June 2001 deputy foreign policy spokesman of the SPD parliamentary group.
Since 1991 member and from 1998 to 2006 head of the German delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly; since 2006 deputy head of the German delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly; since November 2000 Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Since 2004 Chairman of the Political Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
From 1992 to 1994 spokesman of the SPD parliamentary group on the Study Commission on the History and Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in Germany; from 1994 to 1998 spokesman of the SPD parliamentary group on the Study Commission on Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in the Process of Ger man Unity. Chairman of the board of the Foundation on Coming to Terms with the SED Dictatorship; member of the board of the Foundation for Science and Politics; member of the board of trustees of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation; member of the Union of Chemical Workers; from 1996 to 2000 chairman of the Federal Association of the German-Polish Society; since February 2002
Chairman of the Project Group for Poland/German-Polish Relations of the German Society for Foreign Affairs; since October 2001, substitute member of the Conference of the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
Awards :
· Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1995);
· Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1998);
· Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (2002)
· Viadrina prize in recognition of achievements in the field of German-Polish understanding (2003)
· Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana of the Republic of Estonia (2nd Class) (2004)
· Three-Star Order of the Republic of Latvia, for outstanding achievements to support
Latvia's membership in NATO and the EU (2005)
· Medal of the Defence Minister of the Republic of Latvia "in recognition of achievements in supporting Latvia's membership of NATO" (2007)
· Medal of Honour of the Bulgarian Parliament (2007)