Dennis Buchner (born 31 March 1977) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD) who is serving as President of the

Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (House of Deputies) () is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993 the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchne ...

since 2021 to 2023. He has been a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus since 2011.

Life and education

Buchner was born in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, where he earned his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

form the

Oberschule zum Dom The Oberschule zum Dom, a grammar school in Lübeck and the Schleswig-Holstein area of Germany was founded in 1905 during the final years of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II. The school survived the bombing carried out on the city of Lüb ...

. He completed civilian service at the health clinic in

Bad Schwartau Bad Schwartau is the largest city in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Trave and the Schwartau creek, approx. 5 km north of Lübeck. Bad Schwartau is a spa, well known for its iodide sali ...

in 1996, and worked as a supermarket cashier before moving to

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

in 1998 to study political science, sociology and modern history at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

. After beginning work with the SPD in 2002, he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and resumed his studies part-time at the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

. He graduated in 2005 with a degree in political science.

Political career

Buchner joined the Social Democratic Party in 1998. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as a student assistant for Bernhard von Grünberg, an SPD member of the

Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which convenes in the state capital of Düsseldorf, in the eastern part of the district of Hafen. The parliament i ...

. He then worked for the federal SPD executive, including as office manager for deputy chairwoman

Bärbel Dieckmann Bärbel Dieckmann ( Pritz, born 26 March 1949) is a German politician who was elected mayor of Bonn in 1994 and was in office until 2009. She is the first woman and Social Democrat to become mayor of Bonn. Early life and education The daughter ...

. From 2009 to 2010 he was head of department for the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the 2011 Saxony-Anhalt state election, Buchner was campaign manager for the SPD. He then became office manager for SPD federal director Astrid Klug from 2011 to 2012. Buchner was chairman of the SPD association in the

neighbourhood of Weissensee from 2004 to 2020. From 2014 to 2016, he was state director of the Berlin SPD. He was elected deputy chairman of the Pankow branch of the SPD in 2014, and in 2020 became chairman. He was elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin in the

2011 Berlin state election The 2011 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011 to elect the members of the 17th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Left lost its majority. The SPD lost five ...

, winning the constituency of

Pankow Pankow () is the most populous and the second-largest borough by area of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow. P ...

4. He became a member of the Committee for Education, Youth and Family and the Committee for Sport, as well as the SPD's spokesman for sport. In 2012 he became an assessor in the presidium of the Abgeordnetenhaus. From 2016 to 2019 he was also a member of the Committee and Science and Research, and from 2019 to 2021 a member of the Committee for Europe, Federal Affairs, and Media. He was re-elected in Pankow 4 in the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

state elections. After the 2021 election, Buchner was elected President of the Abgeordnetenhaus. In his inaugural speech, he called for greater influence for women and youth in politics, and the lowering of the voting age from 18 to 16 years. He subsequently gave up all of his committee memberships except the Sport Committee. In 2022, he joined the Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Rules of Procedure, and Anti-Discrimination.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchner, Dennis 1977 births Living people Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians People from Lübeck Members of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin 21st-century German politicians