Christoph Meineke

Christoph Meineke
In office January 1, 2007 – December 31, 2014
Preceded by	first directly elected mayor
Personal details
Born	March 13, 1979 (1979-03-13) (age 32) Hanover, Germany
Nationality	Germany
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	Vienna University of Economics
Profession	Economist
Website	Bürgermeisterblog.de (German)

Christoph Meineke (* March 13, 1979 in Hanover) is a German non-party politician and since January 2007 the first directly elected mayor of the municipality of Wennigsen (Deister).

Career

In September 2006, Meineke became the youngest full-time mayor elected in Germany, and he is currently the youngest full-time mayor of Lower Saxony.^[1] Meineke is the first mayor in Northern Germany, who ran for and won a direct election for mayor as an independent candidate without the support of a political party or initiative of voters. His election made headlines on a national level and to this day is used as a reference non-party politics in Germany.^[2][3]/^[4]

Meineke is a member of the Innovators Club of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities, and has developed a particular expertise on leveraging technology (such as Web 2.0 capabilities) in local politics. He was also a member of the working committee of the highly renowned Reinhard-Mohn-Price (formerly known as the Carl-Bertelsmann-Price), judging world wide projects on democracy and participation.^[5]

Background

After graduating from the Matthias-Claudius-Gymnasium in Gehrden, Meineke studied economics at the Vienna University of Economics, the University of St. Gallen and the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. He is currently also working toward a doctorate degree in economics under Prof. Birger Priddat at Witten/Herdecke University.

Publications

Kommunalwahlkampf 2.0 (Municipal elections 2.0 experiences and tips), in: F.-R. Habbel/A.Huber (Hrsg.): Web 2.0 für Kommunen und Kommunalpolitik, Boizenburg: Verlag Werner Hülsbusch, 2008. (In German)

References

1. ^ http://www.daserste.de/maischberger/sendung_liste.asp?datum=13.03.2007&Suche+starten.x=8&Suche+starten.y=8
2. ^ http://www.faz.net/s/Rub594835B672714A1DB1A121534F010EE1/Doc~E4867E9F38CAE4548A5E2506AA550C9D4~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
3. ^ http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/campus/591287
4. ^ http://www.brandeins.de/archiv/magazin/warum-wir-stillstehen-die-tyrannei-der-vorurteile/artikel/berufswunsch-buergermeister.html
5. ^ http://www.vitalizing-democracy.org/index.php?page=detail_news&id_item=1868&menucontext=2&submenucontext=33

Persondata
Name	Meineke, Christoph
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 13, 1979
Place of birth	Hanover, Germany
Date of death
Place of death