Markus Ulbig (born 1 April 1964 in Zinnwald, Bezirk Dresden) is a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and member of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (german: link=no, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right ...

(CDU). He worked in Pirna, became its mayor in 2001, and has been

Minister of Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

of the German federal state of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

since 2009.

Early life and career

Born and raised in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, Ulbig finished training as an electronics technician and worked in that field until 1990. After

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, he joined the Christian Democratic Union and was hired as the personal assistant of the mayor of Pirna, in the region of Saxon Switzerland. He studied in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and Zittau for a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Political career

On 1 August 2001, Ulbig was elected mayor of Pirna. After a number of incidents to counter the rise of

Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

Ulbig became the honorary patron of the ''Pirnaer Initiative'' against

extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

and for civil courage. The initiatives helped to restore tourism. Since January 2005 Ulbig has also been a member of the anti-nuclear weapons movement Mayors for Peace On 8 June 2008, Ulbig was reelected mayor of Pirna. Only 4 months later he was appointed

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

. As one of his state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he serves on the Committee on Internal Affairs; Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Regional Planning; and the Defence Committee. He also chairs the Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK). In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

'' of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats (SPD) following the 2013 federal elections, Ulbig was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on integration and migration, led by

Maria Böhmer Maria Böhmer (born 23 April 1950) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Under the leadership of successive ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2013-2017) and Sigmar Gabriel (2017), she served as Minister of State in th ...

and Aydan Özoğuz. In the 2014 state elections, Ulbig was elected a member of the Landtag of Saxony, and in November 2014, he was nominated as a candidate in the election for Dresden's mayorship in June 2015.

Political positions

In 2012, Ulbig received a German

Big Brother Award The Big Brother Awards (BBAs) recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy". They are named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the novel ''Nineteen Eigh ...

for requesting the

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

of over 55,000 cellular phones gathering over a million

call detail record A call detail record (CDR) is a data record produced by a telephone exchange or other telecommunications equipment that documents the details of a telephone call or other telecommunications transactions (e.g., text message) that passes through that ...

s, when on 19 February 2011 some 20,000 antifascists gathered to protest against the annual neo-Nazi march in

External links

*
CV on the ministry's homepage

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulbig, Markus 1964 births Living people People from Altenberg, Saxony People from Bezirk Dresden Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Ministers of the Saxony State Government Members of the Landtag of Saxony Mayors of places in Saxony