Kurt Beck | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Beck in 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of theSocial Democratic Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 April 2006 – 7 September 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Secretary | Hubertus Heil | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Frank-Walter Steinmeier Andrea Nahles Peer Steinbrück Bärbel Dieckmann | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Matthias Platzeck | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Frank-Walter Steinmeier (acting) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 26 October 1994 – 15 January 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy |
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| Preceded by | Rudolf Scharping | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Malu Dreyer | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| President of theBundesrat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 November 2000 – 31 October 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Vice President | Kurt Biedenkopf | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Kurt Biedenkopf | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Klaus Wowereit | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1949-02-05)5 February 1949 (age 76) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Social Democratic Party (1972–) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance |  Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service |  Bundeswehr | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1968–1969 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unit |  Army (Heer) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Kurt Beck (born 5 February 1949) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), who served as the 7thMinister President ofRhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55thPresident of theBundesrat in 2000–01. In May 2006, he succeededMatthias Platzeck as chairman of the GermanSocial Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post in September 2008.
On 28 September 2012, Beck announced his resignation from the post of minister-president. He was succeeded by social ministerMalu Dreyer.[1][2]
FollowingPeter Struck's death in 2012, Beck – together withDieter Schulte – became the chair of theFriedrich Ebert Foundation; he served until 2020, when he was replaced withMartin Schulz.[3][4]
Beck was born inBad Bergzabern,Rhineland-Palatinate, to the bricklayer Oskar Beck and his wife Johanna. Both his parents had their roots in the town Kapsweyer in southernRhenish Palatinate. He grew up inSteinfeld.
From 1963 to 1968, Beck became an electrician. After military duty in 1968 and 1969, he graduated from an evening school in 1972. Since then, he served as an employee representative onworks councils.
After joining theSPD in 1972, mainly because of the Party's programme as well as the personality ofWilly Brandt, Beck became chairman of the SPD of Rhineland Palatinate in 1993 and deputy chairman of the federal party in 2003. He served in this function until 14 May 2006.
Beck has been active in local affairs since 1974, when he was first elected a member of theKreistag. From 1989 to 1994, he was mayor of his hometown Steinfeld. From 1979, he was a directly elected member of theLandtag ofRhineland-Palatinate, in which he served as the speaker for social affairs of theParliamentary group of the SPD (from 1982 to 1985) and as a member of the governing body of the group from 1985 to 1991, when he was elected chairman.
On 26 October 1994, Beck was electedMinister President ofRhineland-Palatinate, succeedingRudolf Scharping. He was re-elected three times, in 1996,2001 and2006. As Minister President he was known for his centrist approach, which is also apparent from the choice of his coalition partner (the liberalFDP instead of the centre-leftGreen Party, with which the SPD has recently allied itself). In this respect, he follows the policy of Scharping. In March 2006, Beck's SPD gained an absolute majority in the state elections; Beck offered to continue the coalition but since the FDP declined, the SPD formed a government without a partner. AfterEdmund Stoiber resigned in 2007, Beck was the senior Minister President in Germany.
During his time in office, Beck's decisions in Rhineland-Palatinate to increase efficiency in the state government via administrative reorganisation, and to introduce full-day schooling and free kindergartens, drew national attention. The state also emerged as one of the country’s top economic performers.[5] When theUnited States Armed Forces closed dozens of camps and barracks with the loss of 100,000 jobs, Beck's government invested heavily in retraining schemes, creating 40,000 new jobs.[6]
In 2000 and 2001, Beck wasPresident of theBundesrat, one of his duties as Minister President.
In September 2012, Beck announced his resignation. He had been under pressure for weeks over the bankruptcy of theNürburgring motorsports complex in Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the world's most famous race tracks.[7]
WhenMatthias Platzeck had to resign for medical reasons in 2006, Beck was officially elected as chairman of the SPD with the approval of 95% of the delegates.[8] He became the party’s fourth chairman in seven years.[9]
Beck decided not to join the cabinet and succeedVice-ChancellorFranz Müntefering because it would have prevented him from criticizing ChancellorAngela Merkel'scoalition government.[10] According to public opinion polls during his time as party chairman, his possibilities of becomingChancellor, if he had run for this office in the2009 election, had been very limited. According toSüddeutsche Zeitung,[11] only 16% of Germans would have elected him in the hypothetical case of a direct vote againstAngela Merkel.
During his time in office as party leader, Beck most notably negotiated an agreement with Merkel’s Christian Democrats in April 2017 on a partialprivatization of national railwayDeutsche Bahn's passenger andfreight divisions.[12] Meanwhile, Beck's decision in early 2008 to allow regional cooperation with theleft-wing populistLeft Party in western German state parliaments caused a rift within his party and triggered a slump in opinion poll ratings for the SPD and him personally.[13]
On 7 September 2008, Beck resigned as chairman at a party meeting inWerder, Brandenburg andFrank-Walter Steinmeier was chosen as the SPD candidate for Chancellor in the 2009 election, whileFranz Müntefering replaced Beck as chairman after an interim of Steinmeier.[14] At the time, he said that he was a victim of intrigue inside the SPD.[15]
In March 2017, Beck was appointed the government's official commissioner for the victims of theattack at the Christmas market at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz on 19 December 2016. Later that year, together with German Justice MinisterHeiko Maas, he presented his final report.[16][17]
Near the end of 2006, Beck recommended to Henrico Frank, an unemployed construction worker fromWiesbaden, to wash himself and shave so he could get a job.[18] Following a media controversy about Beck's behaviour, Frank declined all jobs offered to him by the state chamber. Later, he was hired as apunk rock expert foriMusic TV.[19]
In April 2007, Beck proposed a peace conference inAfghanistan with the inclusion of "moderateTaliban".[20] The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan,Rangin Dadfar Spanta, thus accused him of being naïve. He compared the idea of "moderate Taliban" to distinguishing between moderate and radical right-wing extremists inRhineland-Palatinate.[21] The German public mostly ignored the affair.
Beck is Catholic. He lives with his wife, Roswitha, whom he married in 1968 inSteinfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate. They have one son (Stefan Beck).
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate 1994–2013 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 2006–2008 | Succeeded by Frank-Walter Steinmeier (interim) |
Chairmen of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany | ||
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| SPD (1890–1933) |
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| SPD-in-exile (1933–1945) |
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| SPD (since 1945) |
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