Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel (' Schäfer; born 1 October 1969) is a former 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 Form ...

(SPD) who has been serving as member of the management board of GIZ since 2019. Schäfer-Gümbel notably was the leader of the opposition SPD party bloc in the Hessian state parliament. He lost his bid for the office of Minister-President of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

in the January 2009 Hessian state election, where he had challenged incumbent

Roland Koch Roland Koch (born 24 March 1958) is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999, immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bund ...

(CDU). Schäfer-Gümbel served as deputy leader of the SPD from December 2013. He was one of three ad interim successors of former SPD leader Andrea Nahles in the transition phase.

Early life and education

Schäfer-Gümbel was born to a West German soldier stationed in southern

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, in

Oberstdorf Oberstdorf (Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Oberschdorf'') is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality and skiing and hiking town in Germany, located in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps. It is the southernmost settlement in German ...

. However, he grew up in

Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students. Th ...

(

). He briefly studied Agrarian Science at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, after which he changed to Political Science. Supported by a scholarship of the

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as t ...

, he graduated with a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 1997, he took various minor political positions.

Career

Schäfer-Gümbel was involved with the Social and Youth department of Gießen from the late 1990s. He became a local adviser to the SPD, a party which he had joined at the age of 17, and was also a local delegate of the SPD in the local government (

Kreistag In 13 German states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the () or (). Most major cities in Germany are not part of any ''Kreis'', but instead combine the functions of a municipality and a ''K ...

) in Gießen. He quickly moved up the ranks in the Hessian SPD party machine, and was a candidate on the SPD party list during the 2003 Landtag election. He gained a seat in 2003, and has been a member of the Hessian Landtag ever since. He was re-elected in the 2008 Landtag election and in the 2009 special election; however he was elected as part of the party list and not on a direct mandate, as he lost his local race to the CDU candidate. In late 2008, following a political crisis and

Andrea Ypsilanti Andrea Ypsilanti (' Dill; born 8 April 1957) is a German politician. Political career Ypsilanti was a member of the Hessian ''Landtag'' (parliament) and served as chairperson of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Hesse from March 2003 to J ...

's resignation, Schäfer-Gümbel became the SPD's party leader in Hesse and the SPD candidate for minister-president of Hesse. However, the SPD fared poorly in the subsequent 2009 special election, which allowed the CDU's

to remain in office. Schäfer-Gümbel was the party leader of the opposition SPD from 29 January 2009. Schäfer-Gümbel was a delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

in 2009, 2010, 2012 and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. He co-chaired the SPD’s national conventions in Berlin (2011)

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

(2012) and

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

(2013). 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 party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' of

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Schäfer-Gümbel was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on energy policy, led by

Peter Altmaier Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Ministry of Finance (Germany), Acting Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2018 and as Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and ...

and

Hannelore Kraft Hannelore Kraft (née Külzhammer, 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 the thi ...

. In March 2019, Schäfer-Gümbel announced that he would resign from active politics by the end of the year and instead join the management board of German development agency GIZ. He had been appointed for the job by

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 ...

and kept it until his promotion to GIZ Speaker of the Board in 2022.

Personal life

Schäfer-Gümbel is married and has three children.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Helaba, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2009) * SV SparkassenVersicherung, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2015)

Non-profit organizations

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

(FES), Member * Friends of the University of Giessen, Member of the Governing BoardOrganization
Friends of the University of Giessen. *

Skyliners Frankfurt The Skyliners Frankfurt, formerly known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their home arena is Ballsporthalle. The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga since 19 ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2015) *

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012) * '' Neue Gesellschaft/Frankfurter Hefte'', Member of the Advisory Board (since 2011) *

Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (, EKHN) is a United Protestant church body in the German federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. There is no bishop and therefore no cathedral. One of its most prominent churches is Katharinen ...

, Member of the Synod (since 2010) *

Hessischer Rundfunk (; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...

, Member of the Broadcasting Council * German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member * Avicenna Award, Member of the Advisory Board (2006-2009)

References

External links

Candidacy website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer-Gumbel, Thorsten 1969 births Living people People from Oberstdorf Converts to Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism German Lutherans Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Leaders of political parties in Germany