Walter Riester

Walter Riester ( born September 27, 1943 in Kaufbeuren ) is a German politician of the SPD. He was from 1998 to 2002 Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs.

Life and career

After attending elementary school graduated Riester 1957-1960 training as a tiler. After that, he did his national service with the engineering corps, but made one month before the end of his period of service an application for conscientious objection. As a tiler he worked until 1969 and put 1969, the Master examination. He then attended the academy until 1970 working in Frankfurt am Main and then worked as a youth secretary DGB - country district of Baden -Württemberg until 1977. In 1977, he joined the IG Metall Headquarters Geislingen, where he worked as second secretary and authorized representative until 1978 to 1979. After that Riester was 1980-1988 District Secretary of the trade union IG Metall Baden- Württemberg until 1988, he became the successor of Ernst Eisenmann as district manager of the IG Metall Baden -Württemberg. From 1993 to 1998 he was Vice Chairman of IG Metall. Between 1976 and 1998 he was also a board member of several German companies (Bosch, Daimler -Chrysler, Thyssen, Audi, Rheinmetall, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, WMF ).

Besides his activities as a member of parliament he appears as a speaker at various companies in the financial services industry in appearance and is a Board Member of ArcelorMittal Bremen. On 1 October 2009, Walter Riester board of the financial services Union Asset Management Holding. The business connections Riester ( and Bert Rürups ) for Financial Services AWD criticized Transparency International as " example of political corruption."

Walter Riester is married and has two children.

Party

Riester joined the SPD in 1966 and belonged from 1988 to 2005 the federal party executive to.

Member of Parliament

From 2002 to 2009 he was a member of the German Bundestag. Here he was deputy from November 2005 to October 2009 Speaker of the working group "Economic Cooperation and Development " of the SPD parliamentary group. Walter Riester represented the congruent with the district Göppingen Göppingen constituency and is always drawn on a state list Baden -Württemberg in the Bundestag. Riester in 2009 no longer running for the Bundestag.

Public offices

On 27 October 1998 he was appointed Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs in led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder government. His name is closely linked to the created in his tenure so-called Riester pension, a state- subsidized private pension provision. After the parliamentary election in 2002, his ministry was dissolved. It now became part of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security. Walter Riester therefore retired from the Federal Government on 22 October 2002.

Honors

  • 2005: Medal of Merit of the State of Baden -Württemberg
  • 2005: Hans Boeckler price of Cologne
  • 2009: Cross of Merit 1st class of the Federal Republic of Germany

Cabinet

  • Cabinet Schröder I
Confederation of German Trade Unions Robert Bosch GmbH Frankfurter Rundschau Anton Storch Walter Arendt Herbert Ehrenberg Wolfgang Clement Olaf Scholz Franz Josef Jung Joschka Fischer Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul Bodo Hombach Hans Eichel Reinhard Klimmt Kurt Bodewig Ulla Schmidt Peter Struck Integrated Authority File
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