Dr. h.c. Gernot Erler
Dr. h.c. Gernot Erler was born on the 3rd of May 1944 in Meißenand and is a German politician as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the German Bundestag.
Political Career
His political career started in 1970, when he became a member of the SPD. From 1973 until 1977 he was the chairman of the local association in Freiburg-Tiengen. Between 1977 and 1987 he worked as the District Chairman of Freiburg SPD. Between the years 1983 and 1997 he was a member of the State Executive Committee and from 1985 to 1997 in the Bureau of the SPD Baden-Württemberg. From 1976 until 1984 he was a member of the Ortschaftsrat, the town council, in Freiburg-Tiengen.
Dr. h.c. Gernot Erler has been a member of Parliament since 1987. In 1994 bhe became a member of the SPD Parliamentary Group Executive Board. From 1998 to November 2005 he was the Group Vice President for foreign policy, security policy, human rights, development policy. He then became the Chairman of the Subcommittee on disarmament and arms control from 1994 until 1998. From the year 2003 to March 2006 he worked as the Coordinator of German-Russian Intersocietal Cooperation at the Foreign Office. From November 2005 to October 2009 Dr. h.c. Gernot Erler was the Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From the year 2009 until 2013 he held the post of the Deputy Chairman of the SPD Parliamentary Group, and has been the Coordinator of the Inter-societal collaboration with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership countries since January 2014.
Relevant Work
From 1968 to 1969 he worked as a publishing editor. Between the years 1969 and 1979 he worked as a research assistant and research staff at the Institute for Eastern European History at the University of Freiburg. He later became the Publishing Director in Freiburg from 1980 to 1987. Dr. h.c. Gernot Erler is a member of the employees' trade union Verdi, the workers' welfare, the Öko-Institut in Freiburg and the "Freiburger Peace Week". He is the chairman of the West-East-South Baden society and the German-Bulgarian Forum and President of the South East Europe company as well as a member of the Federal Cross of Merit.
Education
Dr. h.c. Erler did his Abitur at the Gymnasium in Berlin-Steglitz. He then studied history, Slavic languages and Politics at the Free University of Berlin and the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg from 1963 to 1967, and finished off his studies with the state exam in the year 1967.
