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Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection (2013–2018) in the
cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
of Chancellor
Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...
. Since 2022, he has been practicing as a layer. Maas was born in Saarlouis to a Catholic family, and is a lawyer. Before his appointment to the federal cabinet he was active in state politics in Saarland, where he served as Minister of the Environment, Energy and Transport (1998–1999), Minister of Economy, Labor, Energy and Transport (2012–2013) and Deputy Minister-President (2012–2013).


Early life, education and family

Maas was born on 19 September 1966 to a Catholic, middle class family in Saarlouis, a city near the French border that is named for
Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of V ...
. His father was a professional soldier who later became a manager at
Saarlouis Body & Assembly Ford Saarlouis Body & Assembly (SB&A) is a major car plant located on the western edge of Saarlouis in the German Saarland. It belongs to Ford-Werke GmbH, the German subsidiary of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. History The constructio ...
, a car plant owned by Ford Germany, while his mother was a dressmaker. He graduated from the gymnasium in 1987 and served his compulsory military service from 1987 to 1988; he thereafter worked for a year at Saarlouis Body & Assembly. From 1989 he studied law at Saarland University, and he passed his first state examination in 1993 and was called to the bar in 1996.


Political career


Career in state politics

Maas was first elected to the Saarland Parliament in 1996, under the mentorship of Oskar Lafontaine who would later leave the Social Democrats to found his own party. He served as Minister of the Environment, Energy and Transport from 9 November 1998 to 29 September 1999. Maas led the SPD into the 2009 state election, in which his party only gained 24.5 percent, making it the party’s worst election result in the state. Maas was an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010 and 2012. After the 2012 state election, the SPD went into coalition with the CDU, which before that election had been governing the state in coalition with the Green Party and the Liberals. While the Social Democrats and Left had won enough seats to form a coalition, Maas ruled out such an alliance in favor of a coalition with the CDU led by incumbent Minister-President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. As deputy minister-president, he took over responsibility for the economy, transport, and employment.


Career in national politics

Following the 2013 federal elections, Maas was part of the SPD team in the negotiations with the CDU/CSU on a coalition agreement; he was a member of the energy policy working group led by Peter Altmaier and Hannelore Kraft. On 17 December 2013, he was sworn in as the Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection in the third cabinet of Chancellor
Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...
, succeeding Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. He left his position of Deputy Minister-President of the Saarland and Minister of Economy, Labor, Energy and Transport he was holding since 9 May 2012. Maas earned the nickname 'Prohibition Minister' by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for his many unapproved legislative proposals. In June 2017, Maas disclosed to the '' Bild'' newspaper that he was the recent recipient of an unprecedented number of death threats including a bullet casing in the mailbox of his private residence. He attributed the threats to dissatisfaction with current German immigration policy.


Life after politics

In December 2022, Maas resigned from parliament and announced his intention to leave national politics. He subsequently joined the Berlin office of law firm GSK Stockmann as partner.


Other activities


Regulatory agencies

* Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Posts and Railway (BNetzA), Member of the Advisory Board (2012-2014)


Corporate board

* KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (2018–2021) * RAG-Stiftung, Member of the Board of Trustees (2013–2017) *
SaarLB Landesbank Saar (short SaarLB) is a public-law corporation established in Saarbrücken and the largest credit and mortgage bond institute in Saarland. In 2017, the balance sheet total was around €14 billion. Core markets are Saarland and France ...
, Chairman of the Board of Directors * Saarländische Investitionskreditbank (SIKB), Ex-Officio Member of the Supervisory Board (–2013)


Non-profit organizations

* Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2020) * Aktion Deutschland Hilft (Germany's Relief Coalition), Ex-Officio Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2018–2021) * German Forum for Crime Prevention (DFK), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (2013–2018) * Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Ex-Officio Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2013-2018) * Saarländische Investitionskreditbank AG (SIKB), Chairman of the Supervisory Board *
Saarland University Hospital Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized i ...
, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board * Völklingen Ironworks, Member of the Supervisory Board


Political positions


Foreign policy

After taking office as foreign minister in 2018, Maas was markedly tougher than his immediate predecessors – Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sigmar Gabriel – in his rhetoric and approach towards
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
. On his first day in office, he issued a frank warning about Russian “aggression” and chastised its leadership for “defining itself in antagonism to many in the west”. Under his leadership, Germany – in coordination with its allies – expelled four Russian diplomats over Russia’s suspected involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK. Also, Maas has voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as in Darfur/Sudan (2017 and 2018), South Sudan (2017 and 2018) and
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...
(2017 and 2018). Maas has supported the creation of an international financial system independent of the United States, including the creation of a European Monetary Fund and an independent version of the SWIFT network. In October 2018, Maas questioned the sale of German arms to
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...
after the murder of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In November 2018, Maas raised the issue of Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. Regarding the Yemeni Civil War, Maas told ''Spiegel Online'': "In Yemen, an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy is unfolding before the eyes of the international community...The call from Mike Pompeo and James Mattis for a ceasefire and the resumption of talks comes at the right time. We fully support their appeal." In 8 May 2019,
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
struggle to keep preserve Iran Nuclear Deal agreement Maas said, “Our opinion is and remains: We want to preserve the agreement, in particular to prevent Iran from coming into possession of nuclear weapons, We don’t need further escalation in the region”. In September 2019, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called a meeting between
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
student activist Joshua Wong and Maas as "disrespectful of China's sovereignty and an interference in China's internal affairs". Maas condemned the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria and warned that the offensive would cause more destabilization in the region and could cause ISIS to grow. On 3 January 2020, the high-level Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, was assassinated by the United States, which considerably heightened the existing tensions between the two countries. Maas said that the airstrikes had not "made it easier to reduce tensions", but noted they "followed a series of dangerous Iranian provocations". In June 2020, Maas warned that
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank will be a violation of international law. Following the Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese troops, Maas urged China and
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
to de-escalate tensions to avoid a major conflict. There is a long-standing dispute between Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea. In August 2020, Maas warned that the "current situation in the eastern Mediterranean is equivalent to playing with fire. Every little spark can lead to catastrophe." Maas expressed deep concern over the escalation of hostilities in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and called on
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...
and
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
to immediately halt fighting and progress towards a peaceful resolution. On 26 October 2020, in response to the 2020 Thai protests, Maas mentioned that Germany is continuing to monitor the behavior of Thai King Vajiralongkorn during the time he spends in Germany. He had "made clear that politics that concern the country of Thailand can’t be conducted from German soil" and if there are things that are considered to be illegal, it will have "immediate consequences." President Trump said in his speech to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2018 that Germany will "become totally dependent on Russian energy if it doesn't change course immediately". Maas rejected this, telling reporters "Germany is not dependent on Russia, especially not on energy issues," and that Trump's accusation "does not correspond to reality".


Homeland security

Following the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture in December 2014, Maas told German newspaper '' Bild'': "The CIA's practice of torture is gruesome Everybody involved must be legally prosecuted." In early 2015, Maas successfully introduced a new law meant to mitigate radical Islamist attacks, by making it a criminal offence to travel abroad to receive military training. Shortly after, he and Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) jointly submitted a draft law permitting the temporary retention of internet and telephone data – excluding e-mail traffic – to aid criminal investigations.


Crime and prosecutions

In July 2015, Maas announced plans to amend Germany's penal code on
sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, whi ...
in accordance with the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe; the reform is to punish abuse which exploits a victim's fear of a "perceived menace" and tighten sentences in rape cases. In August 2015, Maas initiated the dismissal and retirement of chief federal prosecutor
Harald Range Harald Range (16 February 1948 – 2 May 2018) was a German jurist and was Attorney General of Germany. Early life and career After completing his studies at the University of Göttingen Range began his career with the judiciary of Lower Saxon ...
; his ministry had questioned Range's decision to open a much-criticized treason investigation against journalists of ''
netzpolitik.org netzpolitik.org is a German language news website on digital rights and digital culture. Among other topics, it covers mass surveillance, open source software, data protection and privacy and net neutrality. The blog was founded in 2002 by Mark ...
'' who had reported about plans of Germany's domestic spy agency – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – to expand surveillance of online communication.German Justice Minister Fires Country's Top Prosecutor
''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 4 August 2015.
Range, meanwhile, had accused the government of interfering in the investigation.


Digital policy

In a 2014 interview with the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...
'', Maas called it "not acceptable" that
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
"dominates the search engine world, and is able to rank its search results in a manner apt to promote its own business interests." In 2015, he endorsed criticism expressed by Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VzBz) which held that
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
’s data protection terms were too vague. Later that year, he publicly accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart racist posts and hate comments on the social media platform.


Anti-whistleblower law

After the Netzpolitik scandal in 2015, where a German language blog leaked top secret documents, Maas proposed new legislation called 'Data Stolen Goods'. Ulf Buermeyer, a judge at the District Court in Berlin cautioned that this anti-whistleblower law would be a massive attack on democracy and freedom of speech. The law was passed as Section 202d of the German Penal Code (§202d StGB) by the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
on 16 October 2015.


Freedom of speech

In early 2017, Maas proposed the "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz" ("network enforcement law") to combat
online hate speech Online hate speech is a type of speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender. Online hate speech is not easily ...
and fake news. The
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
responded with a letter, warning that several democratic freedoms were under attack. The proposed law was met with criticism throughout Germany from industry associations, IT experts, scientists, net-politicians, lawyers, privacy activists and civil rights campaigners who regard it as unconstitutional and defiant of EU-law and warn of "catastrophic effects for
freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
", causing online platforms to drastically censor online speech, resulting in privatization of legal enforcement and abolishing
online anonymity Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Some writers have argued that namelessness, though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea he ...
. The law was passed on 30 June 2017. It also requires social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to publish a biannual report on received complaints and how they dealt with them. Fines of up to €50 million are possible for companies that "systematically refuse to act or do not set up a proper complaint management system" and some warn that this threat of punishment may motivate companies to delete content rather than risk punishment. In 2018, it was reported that the law had led to the deletion of one of Maas's own tweets in which he said an opponent was an "idiot".


State Trojan horse surveillance

On 22 June 2017, Maas expanded by 27 the number of offenses for which a lawful online search using malware can be used. Experts and civil rights defenders have strongly criticized the law for being a gross provocation, violating privacy and undermining cyber-security. Maas has also been accused of using tricks for the proceeding of passing these amendments and using a "backdoor" that has "nothing to do with
democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
debate culture".


Gender policy


Law governing sexual offences

After the massive sexual assaults of New Year 2016 in Cologne, Heiko Maas wanted to reform sexual prosecution laws. Tonio Walter, writing an op-ed in ''Die Zeit'', said that the law was overly broad: under a proposed ban on groping, he claimed, a wife could be punished for embracing her husband from behind, while rules against sex by coercion could punish a boss whose employee consented to sex under a (possibly mistaken, said Walter) fear of losing the job. Walter likewise said that the penalty of 10 years in prison for a sexual assault and 15 for rape by coercion would be too much, noting that non-sexual assaults received a lesser penalty under the laws.


Sexist advertisement

In April 2016, Maas called for a legal ban on sexist advertisements, which "reduce women or men to sexual objects." Germany's Association of Communications Agencies (GWA) observed that it is a subjective matter of taste whether an advertisement is sexist or not. FDP leader
Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Memb ...
remarked that the proposed ban indicated a similar mindset as radical Islamic leaders.


Recognition


National honours

* : Grand Officer of the Order of the Three Stars


Awards

* 2014 – Israel Jacobson Prize, awarded by the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany (UPJ) * 2019 – Prize for Understanding and Tolerance, awarded by the Jewish Museum BerlinAnnika Schönstädt (16 November 2019)
Maas und Kiefer für Verständigung und Toleranz ausgezeichnet
'' Berliner Morgenpost''.


Personal life

Since 2016, Maas has been living with the actress Natalia Wörner. From 2000 to 2016, he was married to Corinna Regneri, a teacher, with whom he has two sons.''Natalia Wörner über die Liebe zu Heiko Maas.''
In: ''vip.de''
Maas enjoys football and is a triathlete. He is a fan of the Hamburger SV.


References


External links

* *
Heiko Maas
at wahl.de , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maas, Heiko 1966 births German Roman Catholics Justice ministers of Germany Living people Members of the Landtag of Saarland People from Saarlouis Saarland University alumni Foreign Ministers of Germany 20th-century German politicians Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag for Saarland Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025