Thomas Sattelberger (born 5 June 1949) is a German manager and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

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 ...

from the state of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

from 2017 to 2022. In addition to his parliamentary work, Sattelberger served as

Parliamentary State Secretary A Parliamentary State Secretary (') is a member of the Bundestag given a portfolio to assist a Minister with running a government ministry. The position is roughly analogous to deputy ministers. In 2021, there are 36 parliamentary state secretari ...

to the Federal Minister of Education and Research from December 2021 to May 2022. In this capacity, he was also the Commissioner for Translational Research. He resigned from office in 2022 due to health and personal reasons.

Early life and education

Born in

Munderkingen Munderkingen () is the smallest town in the district of Alb-Donau (district), Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the Danube, 9 km southwest of Ehingen, and 31 km southwest of Ulm. Buildings Danube Bridge The ...

, Baden-Württemberg, Sattelberger holds a degree in business administration (Duale Hochschule).

Management career

From 1975 Sattelberger worked in the Central Education Directorate of

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactur ...

in Stuttgart. In 1982 he moved to the MTU subsidiary, where his responsibilities included executive development, until he returned to the parent company in 1988 to become Head of Education & Management Development at the

DASA ''Dasa'' ( sa, दास, Dāsa) is a Sanskrit word found in ancient Indian texts such as the ''Rigveda'' and ''Arthasastra''. It usually means "enemy" or "servant" but ''dasa'', or ''das'', also means a " servant of God", "devotee," " votary" or ...

in 1989. In 1994, he moved to

Deutsche Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

in Frankfurt as Head of Group Executives and Personnel Development, where he founded the Lufthansa School of Business, the first corporate university in Germany. In 2003 he joined

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' ( ...

in Hanover as Executive Vice President Human Resources and Labor Director and in 2007 he held the same position at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, where he remained until 2012.

Political career

Sattelberger became a member of the Bundestag in the

2017 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democr ...

. From 2018 until 2021, he was a member of the Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment and the Committee for Labour and Social Affairs. He also served as his parliamentary group's spokesman for innovation, education and research. 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

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), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

and the FDP following the 2021 German elections, Sattelberger was part of his party's delegation in the working group on innovation and research, co-chaired by

Thomas Losse-Müller Thomas Losse-Müller (born 3 April 1973) is a German politician. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Leader of his Party in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. Career Between 1992–1999, Losse-Müller studied Economic ...

Katharina Fegebank Katharina Fegebank (born 27 February 1977) is a German politician for the Alliance '90/The Greens, who has served as Second Mayor of Hamburg and Senator for Science, Research and Equality since 2015. She briefly served as acting First Mayor in M ...

and Lydia Hüskens. Following the establishment of the new government, Sattelberger was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research. His main working topics were diversity, technological strategy, STEM education and digitization.

Other activities

* Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIN-D), Ex-Officio Member of the Supervisory Board (2022) * Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy, Member of the Board of Trustees *

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees * Institut for Employability (IBE) at the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences, Member of the Advisory Board * Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Alternate Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2018) * Rotary International, Member (since 2020) * AFS Intercultural Programs – Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

Sattelberger is

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

and lives with his partner in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

.Queer.de: Coming-Out beim Charity-Dinner
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References

External links

*
Bundestag biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sattelberger, Thomas 1949 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Gay politicians LGBT members of the Bundestag Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) People from Alb-Donau-Kreis Government ministers of Germany