 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Volker Beck" politician – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Volker Beck | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theBundestag forNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 10 November 1994 – 24 October 2017 | |
| Constituency | Alliance 90/The Greens List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1960-12-12)12 December 1960 (age 64) |
| Political party |  German:Alliance '90/The Greens  EU:The Greens–European Free Alliance |
| Spouse | Adrian Petkov (2017–present) |
| Domestic partner | Jacques Teyssier (2008–d. 2009) |
Volker Beck (born 12 December 1960) is a German politician. From 1994 to 2017, he was a member of theBundestag, the German federal parliament, for theGreen Party. Beck served as the Green Party Speaker for Legal Affairs from 1994 to 2002, and as the Green PartyChief Whip in the Bundestag till 2013. He was also spokesperson for the Green Parliamentary Group for interior affairs and religion.
Beck served as spokesman of the Association of Lesbians and Gays in Germany (Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland)LSVD for over ten years. He is a supporter ofsame-sex marriage and has been referred to as the "Father of theGerman Registered Partnership Act".
Beck served as spokesperson of the Green Party's parliamentary group on legal affairs from 1994 to 2002, and as the Green PartyChief Whip in the Bundestag until 2013. He was also spokesperson for the Green Parliamentary Group for interior affairs and religion.
In aGerman Green leadership crisis he created the expressioncandystorm in support ofClaudia Roth.
On his last day in session the Bundestag decided to vote on the gay marriage bill which Beck struggled for since 1989. On the last day of his parliamentary career, he received a standing ovation following the approval of same-sex marriage bill in the German Bundestag. Beck was credited as one of the most influential and important legislators campaigning for this in the German federal Parliament.[1]
On 27 May 2006, Beck was attacked and injured during agay rights demonstration inMoscow, calledMoscow Pride.[2][3] His attack as well as his participation at the Moscow Pride Festival is featured in the documentaryMoscow Pride '06.
In May 2007, he was arrested and put in a bus in front ofMoscow City Hall by the police. He had wanted to hand over a petition signed by several Members of Parliament at Moscow City Hall. He was attacked and had eggs thrown at his head. As in 2007, his partner Jacques Teyssier tried to protect Beck from attacks by anti gay rights protesters.[4]
Alongside fellow MPMarieluise Beck, Volker Beck has been a vocal critic of Russia's human rights situation. During his time as his parliamentary group's spokesperson on human rights, he described the repeated prison sentences againstMikhail Khodorkovsky andPlaton Lebedev as "disproportionate." He has often urged the German government and the European Union to make unequivocally clear to the Russian government that "the only Russia that can be a strategic partner is one that observes the rule of law." He also called on Western investors to "put an end to their opportunistic silence."[5]
Beck spoke in favor of continuingEuropean Union sanctions on Uzbekistan, originally instated after theUzbek government did not allow an international investigation of theAndijan massacre, on 17 October 2006.[6]
In June 2016, Beck was among 19 people detained by Turkish police central inIstanbul; the police had tried to disperse dozens of activists attempting to gather to mark the annualIstanbul Pride week after authorities banned their march.[7]
Beck is also considered an important figure in securing compensation for victims ofNazism. AlongsideOtto Graf Lambsdorff, he negotiated the $4.6 billion fund to compensate people enslaved by the Nazis and later served as one of the trustees of theFoundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future".[8] In 2008, he claimed that the German Parliament should raise more money to fight againstright wing extremists.[9]In 2015, he was awarded the Leo-Baeck-Award by the Central Council of Jews in Germany.[10]
In 2013, Beck complained to R&S, the maker of condoms that were used in a far-right party's campaign against immigrant births. The company apologized and pledged to donate 10,000 condoms as well as the proceeds from the NPD order to a German foundation against right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism.[11]
In 2015, following the agreement on aJoint Comprehensive Plan of Action withIran, Beck criticized Vice ChancellorSigmar Gabriel for calling the country a "friend" and argued that "with its position on Israel and its human rights situation this Iranian regime cannot be Germany's friend or strategic partner."[12]
In October 2023, he wanted to stop the financial support for Palestinian authorities.[13]
In 2013, Beck received major media attention, when his 1988 essay: "Amending criminal law? An appeal for a realistic, new orientation of sexuality politics" which promoted the decriminalization ofpedosexuality, was released in full bySpiegel Online, showing that editorial changes had not altered the message of the essay as he had claimed. In response to the essay's initial discovery amidst revelations within the Green Party regarding members' prior involvement in thepedophilia movement, Beck distanced himself from his previous writing and mentioned that reports from German child care facilities combatingchild sexual abuse dramatically changed his position.[14][15]
Since November 2017 Beck is lecturer at the Center for Studies in Religious Sciences (CERES) at theRuhr University Bochum.[16]
Beck is openly gay. He lived in a long-term partnership withJacques Teyssier until his death from cancer in Berlin on 25 July 2009. The couple had officially registered their partnership in 2008, after 16 years.[18] Beck later entered into a relationship with architect Adrian Petkov, and after registering their partnership in the summer of 2017, the two married on the first day of legal same-sex marriage inKreuzberg.[19][20]
In March 2016, a police search based onreasonable suspicion that Beck had purchased and was in possession of a small amount (lowest classification under German narcotics law) of acontrolled substance, lead to the seizure of 0.6 grams of an alleged drug. Reportedly, the substance found wascrystal meth. Legal proceedings ended with a fine of €7,000 under the classification of "minimal guilt" in April 2016. In the aftermath the Green Party decided for him to remain their spokesperson for religious affairs and elected him to become spokesperson for immigration policy.Irene Mihalic replaced him as spokesperson fordomestic policy.[21][15][22][23]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
