Ralf Stegner (born 2 October 1959) is a political scientist and 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
Fo ...
(SPD) who has been serving as 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 Common ...
for the
constituency of
Pinneberg
Pinneberg (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Pinnbarg'') is a town in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is the capital of the district of Pinneberg and has a population of about 43,500 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18&nbs ...
since the
2021 elections.
Stegner was the leader of the SPD in Schleswig-Holstein from 2007 to 2019. He also served as the leader of the position in Schleswig-Holstein from 2017 to 2021, an office he had previously held from July 2009 to June 2012. He is considered a member of the SPD's left wing.
Early life and education
Stegner was born in
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Win ...
, Germany on October 2, 1959, and received his high school diploma in 1978.
In addition to his degree in Political Science, History and German from the
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...
(1980-1987), Stegner earned a
Master of Public Administration from the
Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
(1987–1989).
Political career
Role in state politics
From 1990 to 1994, Stegner served as a spokesman for the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Social Affairs, Kiel. From 1994 to 1996 he was head of staff department, Ministry of Social Affairs Schleswig Holstein, Kiel. From 1996 to 2005, Stegner served in various roles in the state government of
Minister-President
A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...
Heide Simonis. He was State Secretary for Labor, Social Affairs and Health from 1996 to 1998 before serving as State Secretary for Education, Research and Cultural Affairs from 1998 to 2003. Between 2003 and until Simonis’ resignation in 2005, he was the State Minister of Finance.
Stegner has been a member of the
Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein
The Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the state parliament of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It convenes in the state's capital Kiel and currently consists of 69 members of five parties. The current majority consists of coalition of the ...
since the
2005 state elections. After Simonis's attempt to form a new one-seat majority red-green government supported by a regional party had failed because throughout four secret ballots one representative had not voted for her, she withdrew from politics and Stegner practically took over from her and became Deputy Minister-President and State Minister for Home Affairs in the subsequent CDU-SPD
grand coalition led by Minister-President
Peter Harry Carstensen
Peter Harry Carstensen (born 12 March 1947) is a German politician, in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
From 2005 to 2012 he was Minister President of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2005/ ...
. Although Stegner had harshly criticised the unknown person who had refused to vote for Simonis, he was initially considered to have been the so-called "Heide murderer" by some media, which is generally regarded as refuted because Simonis suspected another person and had planned to pass her office on to Stegner after two years. In 2007 he formally succeeded her as he was elected chairman of the Schleswig-Holstein SPD.
When the SPD ministers left the coalition government, which had been in constant dispute over several issues, in 2008, Stegner became SPD candidate for Minister-President in the early
2009 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2009.
* Electoral calendar 2009
* 2009 United Nations Security Council election
Caribbean
* 2009 Antiguan general election
* 2009 Aruban general election
* 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...
. Following their electoral defeat, he became chairman of the party's parliamentary group and thereby
leader of the opposition against the Carstensen government. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to become the party's candidate again for the
2012 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2012.
International
* 2012 United Nations Security Council election
Africa Egypt
* 2012 Egyptian presidential election
Mali
* 2012 Malian presidential election
* 2012 Malian parliamentary electio ...
; Mayor of
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
Torsten Albig
Torsten Albig (born 25 May 1963) is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 2012 until 2017 he served as the 13th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein.
Early life and education
Albig grew up in Ostholstein and B ...
was chosen instead and subsequently elected to the office. Stegner chose not to return to a ministerial office in Albig's government and kept the offices of party and parliamentary chairman of the SPD. After Albig's defeat in the 2017 elections, Stegner became leader of the opposition for the second time. In 2019 he was succeeded by
Serpil Midyatli in his state party office but remained parliamentary and opposition leader.
Role in national politics
Stegner was a SPD delegate to the
Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the
President of Germany
The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
in 2009, 2010 and 2012. In the negotiations to form a ''
Grand Coalition'' 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 Opp ...
's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian
CSU) and the SPD following the
2013 federal elections, he was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on education and research policy, led by
Johanna Wanka
Johanna Wanka (''née'' Müller; born 1 April 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister for Education and Research in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. ...
and
Doris Ahnen
Doris Maria Ahnen is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Minister for Finance in the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2014. Prior to that she served as the Minister for Education, Re ...
.
At the SPD national convention in 2014, party chairman
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 ...
nominated Stegner as one of his six deputies, alongside
Hannelore Kraft
Hannelore Kraft (''née'' Külzhammer; born 12 June 1961) is a German politician. She served as the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 until 2017. Kraft was the first woman to serve as head of government of this state and was ...
,
Olaf Scholz,
Manuela Schwesig
Manuela Schwesig (' Frenzel, born 23 May 1974) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party serving as Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 4 July 2017. She is the first woman to serve as head of government of this state. P ...
,
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel (' Schäfer; born 1 October 1969) is a former German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as member of the management board of GIZ since 2019.
Schäfer-Gümbel notably was the leader of ...
and
Aydan Özoğuz
Aydan Özoğuz (, born 31 May 1967) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who has been serving as a Vice-president of the German Bundestag since October 2021. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 and served as ...
. In the
2019 SPD leadership election, he announced his intention to run for the position as co-chair in the party's new dual leadership, together with the party's two-time presidential candidate
Gesine Schwan
Gesine Schwan (née ''Schneider'', 22 May 1943) is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party has nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections. On 23 May 2004, ...
.
Saskia Esken
Saskia Christina Esken (' Hofer; born 28 August 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as co-leader of the party since being elected in December 2019 (alongside Norbert Walter-Borjans) ...
and
Norbert Walter-Borjans
Norbert Walter-Borjans (born 17 September 1952) is a German economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as co-leader of the SPD (alongside Saskia Esken) from 2019 to 2021. He served as State Minister of Finance of ...
won the nomination and Stegner retired from his position of deputy chairman. He was ultimately succeeded by
Serpil Midyatli again. In December 2019, Stegner called for a merger between the SPD and
The Left.
Member of the German Parliament, 2021–present
Since the
2021 elections, Stegner 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 Common ...
, representing the
Pinneberg
Pinneberg (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Pinnbarg'') is a town in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is the capital of the district of Pinneberg and has a population of about 43,500 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18&nbs ...
district. In parliament, he has since been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Since 2022, he has also been a member of the
Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr), which provides parliamentary oversight of Germany’s intelligence services
BND,
BfV and
MAD.
Other activities
Corporate boards
*
HSH Nordbank, Ex-Officio Member of the Supervisory Board (2005-2008)
*
KfW
The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world's largest national d ...
, Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (-2005)
Non-profit organizations
*
Federal Academy for Security Policy
The Federal Academy for Security Policy (german: Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, BAKS) is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy
Security policy is ...
(BAKS), Member of the Advisory Board (since 2022)
*
Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees
*
German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member
Personal life
Stegner is married, and has three children.
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stegner, Ralf
1959 births
Living people
People from Bad Dürkheim
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Ministers of the Schleswig-Holstein State Government
Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025