Thijs Wöltgens

Mathias Andreas Marie ( Thijs ) Wöltgens ( born November 30, 1943 in Kerkrade, † May 7, 2008 ) was a Dutch politician. In the course of his career he was both a member of the first chamber and the second chamber of the Dutch Parliament. He was also mayor of the border town of Kerkrade for his party, the Partij van de Arbeid ( PvdA).

In the elections to the Second Chamber in 1977 Wöltgens was first elected as representatives of the people in the Dutch parliament. Since that election, he was one of this until August 30, 1994 for 17 years uninterruptedly. In Parliament, he distinguished himself mainly in the areas of financial and economic policy.

Prior to his career as a politician Wöltgens worked as a teacher in Economics. Besides, he was already politically active and retired as a representative of the PvdA in the Council of the town of Kerkrade. From November 6, 1989 to May 3, 1994, Wöltgens leader of the PvdA.

With his appointment as mayor of Kerkrade on 1 September 1994 its activities ended as a parliamentarian, after the group's presidency six months earlier already handed over to his successor. On the day exactly six years after he took office as mayor in 2000 Wöltgens took his leave. However, he remained in the First Chamber of Parliament, which he held until 2002, was also a member of 1995.

After Wöltgens had put in the mayor's office, he took over from September 2000 to August 2005 the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Universiteit in Heerlen, the Netherlands distance university, the same university with the most enrolled students in the Netherlands.

For April 14, 2005 changed Wöltgens as Chairman to the top of Kamer van Kophandel, the Dutch counterpart of the DIHK.

Thijs Wöltgens died in Kerkrade on 7 May 2008 at the age of 64 from cardiac arrest.