Manfred Stolpe


Manfred Stolpe was Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs of Germany from 2002 until 2005. Before, he was Ministerpräsident of the state Brandenburg from 1990 until 2002.

Biography

Stolpe was born in Stettin. He studied law at the University of Jena in German Democratic Republic . In 1959 he became active in the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, then comprising East Berlin and West Berlin and the region of Brandenburg, and was a guest student at the Free University of Berlin until 1961.
Between 1962 and 1969 he was Head of the Secretariat of the Conference of Governing Bodies of the
Evangelical Churches in the GDR. After this he became Head of the Secretariat of the Federation of Evangelical Churches, a post which he held until 1981. During this time he was appointed to the World Council of Churches "Commission on International Relations".
In 1982 Stolpe became Consistorial President of the Eastern Region of the then divided Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg and, as such, a member of the Conference of Governing Bodies of the Evangelical Churches in the GDR; at the same time he was one of the two deputy chairmen of the Federation of Evangelical Churches. He gave up these positions in 1990 and 1989 respectively. He was a Stasi informer for 20 years while in the church.
In July 1990 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany and on 14 October of that year he was elected to the Brandenburg State Assembly. Shortly afterwards, on 1 November 1990, he was elected Ministerpräsident of the State of Brandenburg. He was re-elected twice and he held the position until his resignation on 26 June 2002. From May 1991 to 26 June 2002 he was a Member of the SPD National Executive. From 22 October 2002 to November 2005 Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs.

Personal

He married Ingrid Stolpe, a physician in 1961. The couple had one child. They both received treatment for cancer, a subject on which they wrote a book and spoke on television.

Awards

Stolpe has received Honorary Doctorates in Theology from the University of Greifswald, from the University of Zurich and in Economics from the University of Szczecin.