1. Heiko Maas was born on 19 September 1966 to a Catholic, middle class family in Saarlouis, a city near the French border that is named for Louis XIV of France.
28 Facts About Heiko Maas
1. 2.
Heiko Maas was first elected to the Saarland Parliament in the 1994 Saarland state election, under the mentorship of Oskar Lafontaine who would later leave the Social Democrats to found his own party.
3.
Heiko Maas served as Minister of the Environment, Energy and Transport from 9 November 1998 to 29 September 1999.
4.
Heiko Maas led the SPD into the 2009 state election, in which his party only gained 24.5 percent, the party's worst election result in the state.
5.
Heiko Maas was an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010 and 2012.
6.
Heiko Maas left his position of Deputy Minister-President of the Saarland and Minister of Economy, Labor, Energy and Transport he was holding since 9 May 2012.
7.
Heiko Maas earned the nickname 'Prohibition Minister' by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for his many unapproved legislative proposals.
8.
In June 2017, Heiko Maas disclosed to the Bild newspaper that he was the recent recipient of an unprecedented number of death threats including a bullet casing in the mailbox of his private residence.
9.
Heiko Maas attributed the threats to dissatisfaction with current German immigration policy since the beginning of the 2015 European migrant crisis.
10.
On September 25,2018, at the United Nations, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas could be seen smirking alongside his colleagues at US President Donald Trump who accused Germany of becoming 'totally dependent' on Russian energy.
11.
In December 2022, Heiko Maas resigned from Bundestag and announced his intention to leave national politics.
12.
Heiko Maas subsequently joined the Berlin office of law firm GSK Stockmann as partner.
13.
Heiko Maas has supported the creation of an international financial system independent of the United States, including the creation of a European Monetary Fund and an independent version of the SWIFT network.
14.
In October 2018, Heiko Maas questioned the sale of German arms to Saudi Arabia after the murder of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
15.
In November 2018, Heiko Maas raised the issue of Xinjiang internment camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.
16.
Heiko Maas condemned the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria and warned that the offensive would cause more destabilization in the region and could cause ISIS to grow.
17.
Heiko Maas said that the airstrikes had not "made it easier to reduce tensions", but noted they "followed a series of dangerous Iranian provocations".
18.
In June 2020, Heiko Maas warned that Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank will be a violation of international law.
19.
On 26 October 2020, in response to the 2020 Thai protests, Heiko Maas mentioned that Germany is continuing to monitor the behavior of Thai King Vajiralongkorn during the time he spends in Germany.
20.
Heiko Maas rejected this, telling reporters "Germany is not dependent on Russia, especially not on energy issues," and that Trump's accusation "does not correspond to reality".
21.
In early 2015, Heiko Maas successfully introduced a new law meant to mitigate radical Islamist attacks, by making it a criminal offence to travel abroad to receive military training.
22.
In early 2017, Heiko Maas proposed the "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz" to combat online hate speech and fake news.
23.
In 2018, it was reported that the law had led to the deletion of one of Heiko Maas's own tweets in which he said an opponent was an "idiot".
24.
On 22 June 2017, Heiko Maas expanded by 27 the number of offenses for which a lawful online search using malware can be used.
25.
Heiko Maas has been accused of using tricks for the proceeding of passing these amendments and using a "backdoor" that has "nothing to do with democratic debate culture".
26.
In 2018, Heiko Maas divorced his wife Corinna, with whom he had been married since 2000 and had two sons.
27.
On 23 August 2023, Worner and Heiko Maas announced that they had separated some time ago.
28.
Heiko Maas has been in a relationship with his former wife Corinna again since the end of 2023.