Matthias Miersch (born 19 December 1968) is a German

criminal defense lawyer A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...

and

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 ...

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 has been serving as Member of the German Parliament since 2005, representing the

Hannover-Land II Hannover-Land II is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 47. It is lo ...

district. He focusses on environmental policy. Since 2013, Miersch has been a member of the party's executive board under successive chairpersons

Sigmar Gabriel Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

(2013-2017),

Martin Schulz Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018, and was a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. Previously he was President of the European Parliame ...

(2017-2018),

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April 2 ...

(2018-2019) and

Rolf Mützenich Rolf Heinrich Mützenich (born 25 June 1959) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag since June 2019. Early life and education Mütz ...

(since 2019).

Early life and education

Born in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

, Miersch studied law at the

Leibniz University Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...

and the

German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer The German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer (German: ''Deutsche Universität für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer''; sometimes referred to as Speyer University), is a national graduate school for administrative sciences and public man ...

. From 1988 until 1995, he volunteered for the St. John Accident Assistance.

Political career

Miersch has been a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German 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 Representatives or the House of Commons ...

since the 2005 national elections. He has since been serving on the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Between 2005 and 2009, he served on the Committee on Legal Affairs. In addition, Miersch was a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board for Sustainable Development (2006-2009) and the Parliamentary Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (2014-2016). In 2014, he joined the parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the Highest Courts of Justice, namely 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 ...

(BGH), the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the

Federal Fiscal Court The Federal Fiscal Court (''Bundesfinanzhof'') is one of five federal supreme courts of Germany, established according to Article 95 of the Basic Law. It is the federal court of appeal for tax and customs matters in cases which have already bee ...

(BFH), the

Federal Labour Court The Federal Labour Court (''Bundesarbeitsgericht'') is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law (mostly concerning contracts of employment) and collective labour law (e.g. cases concerning st ...

(BAG), and the

Federal Social Court The Federal Social Court (''Bundessozialgericht'') is the German federal court of appeals for social security cases, mainly cases concerning the public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident ins ...

(BSG). 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 (CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Miersch was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on the environment and agriculture, led by

Katherina Reiche Katherina Reiche (born 16 July 1973 in Luckenwalde, Bezirk Potsdam) is a German manager and former politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Education After receiving her Abitur in 1992, she studied chemistry at the University of Po ...

and

Ute Vogt Ute Vogt (born 3 October 1964) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the from 1994 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2021. Since 2021, she has been serving as president of the German Life Saving ...

. Within his parliamentary group, Miersch belongs to the Parliamentary Left, a left-wing movement. He served as spokesperson on environmental policy between 2009 and 2013. In 2015, he was elected to the parliamentary group's executive board under the leadership of chairman

Thomas Oppermann Thomas Ludwig Albert Oppermann (27 April 195425 October 2020) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). From October 2017 until his death he served as Vice President of the Bundestag. In his earlier career, he serv ...

. Since 2017, he has been the group's deputy chairman, under successive chairs

(2017-2019) and

(since 2019). In 2019, Miersch succeeded

Stefan Schostok Stefan Schostok (born 12 May 1964) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party and was Mayor of Hanover from 11 October 2013 until 26 May 2019. From 2008 to January 2013 he served as a member of the Lower Saxony Legislative Assembly. Du ...

as chairman of the SPD in Hannover. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the SPD, the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Miersch led his party's delegation in the working group on environmental policy; his co-chairs from the other parties are

Oliver Krischer Oliver Krischer (born 26 July 1969) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as State Minister for Environment, Nature Protection, and Transport in the government of Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphali ...

and Lukas Köhler.

Other activities

* Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2018) *

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinism, Calvinist) and united and uniting churches, United ( ...

(EKD), Member of the Committee on Sustainable Development (since 2016) * Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2009) * Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld, Substitute Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2009) * ''spw – Zeitschrift für sozialistische Politik und Wirtschaft'', Member of the Editorial Board *

Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union The Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V. ("Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union") or NABU is a German non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to Conservation movement, conservation at home and abroad, including the protection of river ...

(NABU), Member *

Young Men's Christian Association YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

(YMCA), Member

Personal life

Miersch is married with his partner.Offizielle Website von Matthias Miersch
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External links

Website Matthias Miersch in German

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miersch, Matthias 1968 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony LGBT members of the Bundestag Gay politicians Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany