Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953 in West Berlin) is a German politician, member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party), and has been the mayor of Berlin since the 2001 state elections, where he won a plurality of the votes, 29.7%. He served as President of the Bundesrat (the second highest office in Germany) in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections. He is also sometimes mentioned as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship of Germany (Kanzlerkandidatur), though his chances diminished after his decision to enter into a coalition with the socialist Left Party for a second term.
Klaus Wowereit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mayor of Berlin | |
| Assumed office 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Eberhard Diepgen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 October 1953 West Berlin, West Germany  |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) |
| Height | 166px |
| Alma mater | Free University of Berlin |
| Signature |  |
Background
Until 1973, Klaus Wowereit attended the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Oberschule in Berlin. Afterwards, he studied law at the Free University Berlin (State Exams, 1981 and 1984).
Political career
After 3 years as a civil servant in the Senate office of the Interior Wowereit stood for election as municipal councillor in Tempelhof borough. At the age of 30, he was therefore the youngest councilor in the city of Berlin. After eleven years as a Borough Councillor he stood for the Berlin House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin) which serves as the City's Landtag or state legislature in 1995. In December 1999, he was elected chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Abgeordnetenhaus. Since June 2001 he has served as Governing Mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister) of Berlin. Previously, the SPD had left the Grand coalition with the CDU and initiated new elections. After this election and following long-time negotiations, Wowereit finally started a coalition with the PDS.
In the elections held on 17 September 2006, Wowereit's (SPD) finished as the strongest party. The 16th Abgeordnetenhaus re-elected Wowereit as Governing Mayor on 23 November 2006, in the second ballot with only a 75:74 majority. CDU, Free Democrats and the Green Party voted against him.
Personal life
Wowereit is one of the most famous German politicians who is openly gay. In coming out, prior to the 2001 mayoral elections, he coined the now famous German phrase "Ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so." ("I am gay, and that’s a good thing."). In his autobiography (see below) Wowereit states that his decision to come out in public was made because after his nomination as candidate to become the mayor of Berlin, he felt that the German tabloids were already "on the track". With his coming out, Wowereit wanted to beat the tabloids to it and prevent them from writing wild, sensational and made-up stories about his private life. Wowereit said those now famous words during a convention of the Berlin SPD. After he had ended, there was half a second of surprised silence, then spontaneous cheering and loud applause to support him.
His election as mayor made Berlin one of three major European cities with an openly gay mayor, along with Paris, whose mayor is Bertrand Delanoë, and Hamburg, whose mayor is Ole von Beust, who both also took office in 2001. Previously, the largest city with a gay mayor had been Winnipeg, Canada, with mayor Glen Murray. Berlin and Hamburg are not only the two largest cities in Germany, but both are also German states, making both Wowereit and von Beust also state premiers.
In September 2007, Wowereit published an autobiographical book titled "…und das ist auch gut so.", after his famous coming-out phrase (ISBN 3896673343).
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