Georg Maier (politician)
Georg Maier | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 25, 1967 Germany |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Known for | Minister of the Interior of Thuringia, Deputy Prime Minister of Thuringia |
Georg Maier (born 25 April 1967) is a German politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He held the position of Minister of the Interior in the Free State of Thuringia from 30 August 2017 until 5 February 2020 during the First Ramelow cabinet, and was reinstated on 4 March 2020 in the Second Ramelow cabinet. Since 26 September 2020, he has served as state chairman of the , and from 31 August 2021 onward, he has been the deputy prime minister of Thuringia.
Life
Following his Abitur completion in Singen and subsequent military service, Maier pursued studies in business administration at both the University of Mannheim and University of St. Gallen between 1988 and 1994.
He began his professional journey in 1995 at the Federal Agency for Special Tasks Related to Unification (BvS) located in Erfurt. In 1996, Maier joined the KfW banking group based in Frankfurt am Main, where he undertook various positions until 2015, including serving as head of the executive board and later managing start-up and SME financing operations in Bonn. Since 2018, he has lived in Friedrichroda, Thuringia, where he was also a member of the municipal council.
Maier practices Roman Catholicism and has three children from his first marriage. He has been in a relationship with his second wife, Antonia Sturm, since 2017; they wed in 2022 and have a daughter born in 2020.
Political career
Maier has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany since 2009. During the campaign for the 2013 German federal election, he participated as part of the five-member strategy team supporting SPD chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrück, concentrating on issues related to small and medium enterprises, energy policy, infrastructure, and digital transformation. After the election campaign, he joined advisory boards focused on Business and Finance as well as the Think Tank for Digitization and Society under Hessian SPD chairman Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel. Additionally, he is involved with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's management circle and acts as spokesman for the SPD's Finance Forum in Frankfurt.
On 30 June 2015, Maier was appointed State Secretary at the , where he was responsible for economic policy, development initiatives, tourism, and digital society matters. From November 2016 onward, he has been a member of the state executive committee of , and in November 2018 at the party conference held in Arnstadt, he was elected state treasurer.
Maier assumed office as Minister of the Interior of Thuringia on 30 August 2017, succeeding the dismissed . On 26 May 2019, he secured election to both the city council of Friedrichroda and the district council of Gotha but subsequently relinquished his city council seat.
He won a seat in the Landtag of Thuringia during the 2019 Thuringian state election, resigning on 30 June 2020 to return to his ministerial role, with succeeding him.
In September 2020, Maier was chosen as state chairman of Thuringian SPD with an approval rate of 82.7% at the party conference held in Bad Blankenburg. On 31 August 2021, he took over as Deputy Prime Minister of Thuringia from Wolfgang Tiefensee. Furthermore, he was elected to the SPD Party Executive Committee in December 2021 and again in December 2023.
For the upcoming 2024 Thuringian state election, Maier was nominated as SPD Thuringia's lead candidate.
Honours
- Fire Brigade Medal of Honour, Germany (2024)