15 Facts About Rolf Schwanitz

Rolf Schwanitz was born on 2 April 1959 and is a German politician.

Rolf Schwanitz was then, from 2005 till 2009, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Health ministry under Federal Chancellor Merkel.

Rolf Schwanitz then studied Business administration at Jena and Law at East Berlin.

Rolf Schwanitz emerged from his tertiary education with degrees in Engineering Economics and in Jurisprudence, before taking a position as a research assistant in the Business Administration department at the Technology Institute at Zwickau.

In October 1989 Rolf Schwanitz joined New Forum, a political movement originating in Zwickau and associated with the Peaceful Revolution that soon afterwards put an end to the German Democratic Republic as a stand-alone one-party state.

In 2009, following the resignation of Thomas Jurk, and until his successor Martin Dulig was elected, Rolf Schwanitz briefly served as acting regional party chairman in Saxony.

Rolf Schwanitz is a member of the leadership circle of the Seeheimer Kreis, a working group of SPD politicians that describes itself as "undogmatic and pragmatic".

Rolf Schwanitz goes on, "If a third of the German population, sharing the non-religious perspective, recognise the issue, then we need to raise it up the public agenda with an SPD working group".

Rolf Schwanitz was very sharply critical of the public representation of the papal visit to Germany in September 2011, when he was one the members of parliament who refused to attend Pope Benedict's high-profile speech to the Bundestag.

Rolf Schwanitz was one of the 144 deputies in the chamber who on 3 October 1990, as part of the German reunification process, became members of the Bundestag of a reunited Germany.

Rolf Schwanitz enjoyed electoral success in the Bundestag elections in 1994,1998,2002,2005 and 2009, but did not contest a seat in 2013.

Rolf Schwanitz was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary of State, working in the department of the Justice Minister Kurt Wunsche.

On 27 October 1998 Rolf Schwanitz was appointed Minister of State in Schroder's Chancellery.

The outcome of the 2002 election was close, but it enabled Gerhard Schroder to form a second coalition government with the Greens: this time Rolf Schwanitz was not a member of it.

Rolf Schwanitz resigned his office as the Social Democrats went into opposition.