Dietmar Bartsch

Dietmar Bartsch from The Left/DIE LINKE

Dietmar Gerhard Bartsch (born 31 March 1958, in Stralsund) is a German politician, former Federal Whip (Bundesgeschäftsführer) of the Party of Democratic Socialism (1997–2002, 2005–2007) and Die Linke (2007–2010) and member of the Bundestag. He is married and has two children. Since October 2015 Bartsch is, together with Sahra Wagenknecht, co-heading the faction of The Left in German Parliament. He is representing the moderate, reformist wing of the party.

Biography

Bartsch was born and raised in the East German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where he, as the main architect, established the first Social-Democratic government in coalition with The Left in 1998.

He completed his A-levels with honors in 1976 at the EOS Franzburg, the Extended Secondary School form, at the time common in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Starting in 1978, he is taking up courses in economics at the University of Economic Studies in Berlin-Karlshorst, graduating with a diploma in 1983.

Thereafter Bartsch joined the business department of the German daily paper junge Welt (Young World). From 1986 till 1990, he completed his dissertation at the Academy for Social Sciences at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) headquarters. After his graduation he returns to junge Welt as their business executive.

Political Career

Dietmar Bartsch became a member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the GDR's ruling party, in 1977. He was a co-founder of the Committee Young Comrades (AGJG) in 1989. From 1991 till 1997, Bartsch became the Party of German Socialism's (PDS) Federal Treasurer and was elected federal whip not much later.

In 2002, he ran as one of four leading candidates for the PDS in the general elections. After the party failed to overcome the constitutionally defined 5-percent-clause, and was only able to send two representatives to German Parliament (Bundestag), Bartsch's political rivals asked for his resignation as federal whip.

He subsequently did not run for this office again in 2002. But only three years later, in October 2005, he was nominated federal whip by PDS party chairman Lothar Bisky, and elected into office in December 2005. After the party`s transformation from PDS into The Left, Bartsch continued leading the party in his role as federal whip.

He managed the party's 2009 General Election campaign. The Left achieved a result of 11.9% nationwide, which was the best result in the party's history so far.

Factional struggles, as part of any political career, also shape Bartsch's background. In early January 2010, Bartsch was accused by Gregor Gysi, at the time parliamentary leader of The Left and one of the most visible and recognizable party members, to have harmed party chairman Oskar Lafontaine through specific statements to the German news magazine The Mirror (Der Spiegel). Bartsch denied this. He claimed, he had neither behaved disloyal, nor considered himself Lafontaine's replacement. Bartsch announced after continuous factional struggle, to remain federal whip for the time being. He declined, however, to run for this office again in 2010.

Since January 21, 2010, Bartsch was deputy chairman of The Left party in the Bundestag. His specialty areas are the national budget and finances.

In August 2011, he distanced himself from a congratulatory letter that two members of The Left had sent the former Cuban President Fidel Castro for his birthday. After some members of The Left boycotted a minute of silence for the casualties at the Berlin Wall, Bartsch suggested to proponents of the Berlin Wall to leave the party.

Bartsch declared his intention to run for party chairman in late 2011. After Oskar Lafontaine had announced his wish to run for the same position, but it became clear that Bartsch won't change his mind, Lafontaine let go of his intention. At the annual party convention of The Left in June 2012, Bartsch eventually lost against the unionists Bernd Riexinger from Baden-Württemberg, a close ally to former party chairman Oskar Lafontaine.

References



Media related to Dietmar Bartsch at Wikimedia Commons



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