Thomas Oppermann

Thomas Oppermann (b. April 27, 1954 in Freckenhorst) is a German politician (SPD). He was the Minister for Science and Culture from 1998-2003 in the state of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) and since November 2007 he has been the speaker of the SPD-Bundestag fraction.

Life and Career

Oppermann received his Abitur diploma from the Goetheschule in Einbeck. Afterwards he studied Germanics and English studies at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen. From 1976 to 1978 he worked at Action Reconciliation Service For Peace (ARSP) in the United States. After his return to Germany, he studied Law at the Georg August University in Göttingen, finishing in 1986. From then until 1990, he was an administrative court judge in Hannover and later in Braunschweig. From 1988 to 1989 he was judge at the administrative court in the city of Hann. Münden. Oppermann has three daughters and one son.

Party Membership

Since 1980, Oppermann has been a member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) and since 1989 he is President of the regional SPD in Göttingen.

Polifical Career

From 1990-2005 Oppermann was a member of the regional assembly of Lower Saxony. There he was speaker for political law from 1990-1998. From 2003 to 2005 he was economic speaker of the SPD-State fraction. From 2001-2005, he also was a member of the county council in Göttingen. Since 2005, he has been a member of the German national parliament (the Bundestag). From March 2006 to November 2007 he was speaker of the working group and leader of the SPD delegation in the secret service investigation committee (Geheimdienst-Untersuchungsausschuss).

External links

http://www.thomasoppermann.de http://www.bundestag.de/mdb/bio/O/opperth0.html