Karl-Heinz Funke (born 29 April 1946) is a German politician. From 1998 to 2001, he served as the Minister of Food and Agriculture of Germany in the

First Schröder cabinet The First Schröder cabinet (German: ''Kabinett Schröder I'') was the 19th Government of Federal Republic of Germany in office from 27 October 1998 until 22 October 2002. It succeeded the Fifth Kohl cabinet formed after the 1998 elections. Ger ...

Personal life

Funke was born on 29 April, 1946 in Dangast, part of the Oldenburg District of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. After performing his military service, he studied at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

and later taught at a school in

Varel Varel () is a town in the district of Friesland, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the Jade River and the Jade Bight, approximately south of Wilhelmshaven and north of Oldenburg. With a population of 23,984 (2020) it is the biggest ...

Political career

In 1972, he was elected to the city council in Varel and, in 1978, was elected to the

Landtag of Lower Saxony The Lower Saxon Landtag () or the Parliament of Lower Saxony is the state diet of the German state of Lower Saxony. It convenes in Hanover and currently consists of 146 members, consisting of four parties. Since 2022 the majority is a coalition o ...

. In 1990, Funke's Social Democratic Party won the state elections, which brought future-

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ...

, into power as the

Minister President of Lower Saxony The Minister-President of Lower Saxony (german: Ministerpräsident des Landes Niedersachsen), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of Lower Saxony. The position was created in 1946, when the ...

. Schröder tapped Funke as his state Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forests, where he served until 1998. In the

1998 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 27 September 1998 to elect the members of the 14th Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) emerged as the largest faction in parliament for the first time since 1972, with its leader Gerhard Schröd ...

, Schröder and the SPD were the largest party in the German Bundestag. Schröder took power as the Chancellor and appointed Funke to the position of Federal Minister Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forestry. Funke resigned from the government on 12 January 2001 after an outbreak of

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...

(BSE) in German cattle herds. Funke had originally made public statements that German farms had not been afflicted by the disease. The Federal Minister of Health,

Andrea Fischer Andrea Fischer (born January 14, 1960) is a former member of the German Bundestag for the German Green Party and from 1998 until 2001 was Federal Minister for Health. She dropped out of the Bundestag in 2002. Life Education and profession After ...

, also resigned because of the crisis. He was forced to resign from the SPD in 2011 after founding a local electoral group called Zukunft Varel that would compete against the SPD, which, under the party's bylaws, was a forbidden activity. Funke was later elected to the municipal council with new new election organization.

Legal issues

Funke later was appointed as the head of the Oldenburg-East Frisian Water Association, the local drinking water collective. In 2009, Funke resigned from the association after allegations that he had used 8,000 euros of the company's funds to pay the costs of his silver wedding anniversary ceremony. In 2011, he faced a trial for embezzlement and also charged him with unlawfully increasing the salary of the association’s managing director from 117,000 euros annually to 270,000 euros. Further, the prosecutors alleged that he made payments without approval to employees that totaled 1.2 million euros. In 2012, he was acquitted of charges that he used the association's funds for his wedding anniversary, but found guilty of increasing the manager's salary without authorization. The prosecutors had asked the court for a sentence of 10 months probation and a 10,000 euro fine; however, the court sentenced Funke to a suspended six-month sentence and a 10,000 euro fine. The acquittal was overturned by the

Federal Court of Justice The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...

in 2013 and Funke ultimately paid a fine of 2,000 euros to settle the case.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funke, Karl-Heinz 1946 births Living people Agriculture ministers of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Federal government ministers of Germany People from Varel