1. Matthias Platzeck was born on 29 December 1953 and is a German politician.
22 Facts About Matthias Platzeck
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Matthias Platzeck was Minister President of Brandenburg from 2002 to 2013 and party chairman of the SPD from November 2005 to April 2006.
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On 29 July 2013 Platzeck announced his resignation from his office in August for health reasons.
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Matthias Platzeck was born in Potsdam, the son of a physician and a medical-technical assistant.
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Matthias Platzeck co-founded ARGUS, a Potsdam environmental organization, with and at the initiative of Carola Stabe in April 1988.
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Matthias Platzeck represented ARGUS at the founding of the Grune Liga association of local environmental organizations in East Germany in November 1989.
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Matthias Platzeck was elected member of the Volkskammer in 1990 for the Green Party and was parliamentary secretary of the joined faction of Greens and Bundnis 90.
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Matthias Platzeck did not run for a full term in the 1990 German federal election.
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In October 1990 Matthias Platzeck became a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg for Bundnis 90.
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Matthias Platzeck was Minister for the Environment in a coalition government with the SPD and FDP from 1990 to 1994, when the coalition broke up.
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Matthias Platzeck became popular nationwide for organizing public support for the affected population during a flood of the Oder river in 1997.
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In 2000 Matthias Platzeck was elected chairman of the SPD in Brandenburg and in 2002 he succeeded Manfred Stolpe as Minister-president.
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Matthias Platzeck was re-elected to the Landtag in 2004.
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When Franz Muntefering resigned as party chairman of the SPD because of internal conflicts, Matthias Platzeck was elected party chairman on 15 November 2005 with an overwhelming majority of 99.8 percent.
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In January, February and April 2006 Matthias Platzeck suffered three severe hearing losses.
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From 2018 until 2019, Matthias Platzeck co-chaired the German government's so-called coal commission, which is tasked to develop a masterplan before the end of the year on how to phase-out coal and create a new economic perspective for the country's coal-mining regions.
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In 2019, Matthias Platzeck was appointed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community to chair the committee that oversaw the preparations for the 30th anniversary of German reunification.
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Matthias Platzeck was nominated by his party as delegate to the Federal Conventions for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.
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Matthias Platzeck caused controversy in August 2010 when he called the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 an Anschluss, the word used by Adolf Hitler to defend the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938.
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On 18 November 2014, Matthias Platzeck called for the international legitimization of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, drawing criticism.
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Matthias Platzeck was listed in a 2022 article by Politico among 12 Germans who got played by Vladimir Putin.
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From 1978 to 1984, Matthias Platzeck was married to Ute Bankwitz with whom he has three daughters.