Editing Matthias W. Birkwald

Mathias W. Birkwald is a member of The Left Party and was born on September 28, 1961 in Münster. He is a sociologist by profession.
 
== Political Career ==

Between 1993 and 2007, Birkwald was a member of PDS (one of the predecessors to The Left Party). In 1994, he became the campaign director of the PDS in North Rhine-Westphalia, and a direct candidate in the Cologne general elections. From 1994 to 2002, he worked as a research associate at the PDS parliamentary party. In 2000, he was a direct candidate for the PDS in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election in Cologne. In 2002, he was once again the PDS direct candidate in the general election in Cologne.
From 2003 to 2005 he worked as personal assistant to the Berlin Senator for Health, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection, Dr. Heidi Knake-Werner, and was responsible for the areas of social and migration issues. 

From 2005 to 2007, he was a member of the WASG, and from 2005 to 2009 he was Head of Members' offices of Prof. Dr. Lothar Bisky in the German Bundestag.
In September 2009, Birkwald was elected to the German Bundestag, and became the pension policy spokesman of The Left Party. In September 2013, he was reelected to the Bundestag, and worked as the pension policy spokesman and as the chairman and ordinary member of the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs, deputy member of the Petitions Committee. He is a deputy member of the Board of Trustees Foundation House of History.

== Education ==

In 1981, Birkwald began to study political science, sociology, philosophy and political economy in Cologne, Bonn and Bremen. In 1990, he obtained his diploma in Social Science.

== External Links ==

http://www.matthias-w-birkwald.de/

http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/bundestag/members18/biographies/b/birkwald_matthias_w/258172