Wolfgang Tiefensee

Wolfgang Tiefensee (born 4 January 1955) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Originally an electrical engineer, Tiefensee turned to politics in 1989, during the democratization process of the German Democratic Republic.

He became a member of the SPD in 1995.

His brother, Eberhard Tiefensee, is a Catholic priest and was professor of theology at the University of Erfurt from 1997 to 2018.

Tiefensee was elected mayor of Leipzig in 1998, and was re-elected with 67.1% of the vote in April 2005.

In 2002, Tiefensee was part of the 15-member commission that developed the so-called Hartz reforms, a set of recommendations to reform the German labour market as part of chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Agenda 2010.

Later that year, following the 2002 federal elections, he declined Schröder’s offer to join his government.

He was the Federal Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Development in the grand coalition cabinet led by Angela Merkel between 2005 and 2009.

Before 2005, he declined offers of a position in the federal government, stating his place was in Leipzig.

In 2007, Tiefensee chaired talks following which EU transport ministers agreed unanimously to end talks with a private consortium contracted to develop the Galileo satellite navigation system and to spend €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) to build it themselves instead.

Also during his tenure as Germany's transport minister, Tiefensee announced the little-known architect Francesco Stella as the winner of a competition to find an architectural design for the controversial reconstruction of the Berlin Stadtschloss in 2008.

As mayor, he put great effort into Leipzig's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

While Leipzig unexpectedly won the campaign to tender the German bid, the middle-sized city did not get past the first round of the international competition, which was in fact won by London.

In 2012, Tiefensee succeeded Garrelt Duin as spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group on economic affairs.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of chancellor Angela Merkel'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 economic policy, led by Ilse Aigner and Hubertus Heil.

Since 2014, he has been the State Minister of Economy, Science and the Digital Society in the government of Thuringia's Minister-President Bodo Ramelow.

Tiefensee resigned from his seat in parliament when he became State Minister of Economy, Science and the Digital Society in the government of Thuringia's Minister-President Bodo Ramelow in 2014.

As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he serves on the Committee on Cultural Affairs and on the Committee on Economic Affairs.

In early 2018, Tiefensee was elected chairman of the SPD in Thuringia, succeeding Andreas Bausewein.

He was confirmed in the November 2018 party conference.

In May 2020, Tiefensee announced that he would not stand in the next Thuringian state election but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Tiefensee, whose father was the musician and conductor Siegfried Tiefensee, is also known for playing the cello, a talent that he successfully incorporated into Leipzig's Olympic bid.