Expert in domestic and foreign policy with experience at federal and state level.

Christoph Matschie has been active in various functions in federal and state politics for over 30 years and is very familiar with strategic issues in domestic and foreign policy. Christoph Matschie belongs to the founding generation of the SPD in East Germany and represented it at the Central Round Table, which negotiated the conditions for the first free elections. He was state chair of the SPD in Thuringia from 1999 to 2014 and a member of the SPD's federal executive committee from 2001 to 2019.

Career

Christoph Matschie was a member of the Bundestag for 18 years and a member of the Thuringian Landtag for 12 years. He was first elected to the Bundestag in 1990. During this time, he was Chairman of the Environment Committee from 1998 to 2002 and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 2002 to 2004.

From 2004 to 2009, he led the state parliamentary group of the SPD in Thuringia as chairman. From 2009 to 2014, Christoph Matschie was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Science and Culture.

With the 2017 Bundestag elections, he returned to the Bundestag and became deputy foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group. He also chaired the SPD parliamentary group's Africa discussion group and served as spokesperson in the United Nations and International Organisations subcommittee. In 2020, he decided not to re-candidate for the Bundestag and retired from it in October 2021.

He is currently working as a Guest Researcher at the Centre for International Peace Operations in Berlin.

Education

After completing vocational training as a mechanic, Christoph Matschie studied Protestant theology in Rostock and Jena, graduating as a theologian in 1989.

Private

In an honorary capacity, he is chairman of the board of the Ernst Abbe Foundation in Jena, which promotes research in the region, and he recently became vice-president of the German Africa Foundation.

The father of three children loves trekking in the high mountains and good literature.