Walter Riester (born 27 September 1943 in

Kaufbeuren Kaufbeuren (; Bavarian: ''Kaufbeiren'') is an independent town in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Swabia, Bavaria. The town is an enclave within the district of Ostallgäu. Districts Kaufbeuren consists of nine districts: * Kaufbeuren (town core i ...

) is a German politician of the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

and former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.

Political career

Riester joined the SPD in 1966. From 1993 to 1998 he was deputy chairman of the

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: ''Industriegewerkschaft Metall'', "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of Ge ...

. From 1998 until 2005, Riester was a member of the SPD's federal executive board, under the leadership of successive chairmen

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 Germa ...

and

Franz Müntefering Franz Müntefering (; born 16 January 1940) is a German politician. He was Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 2004 to 2005 and again from 18 October 2008 to 13 November 2009. He served as the minister of Labour and Social Affairs, ...

. From 1998 to 2002 Riester was Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the cabinet of Chancellor

. The ministry was dissolved after the 2002 elections, so Riester was withdrawn from the cabinet, although there had been no change of government. His name is best known for the so-called ''Riester-Rente'', a grant-aided privately funded

pension scheme A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

, which was created during his term of office. From 2002 until 2009, Riester was a member of the German Bundestag, where he served on the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Other activities

Union Investment Union Investment (; formal name Union Asset Management Holding AG) is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Frankfurt. Trading in open-en ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (2009-2012) * Hans Böckler Prize of the City of Cologne, Member of the Advisory BoardHans Böckler Prize
City of Cologne.

References

External links

Official Website
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Riester, Walter 1943 births Living people Labor ministers (Germany) Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg People from Kaufbeuren Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Social Affairs ministers of Germany Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany