Lothar Bisky

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Lothar Bisky (born August 17, 1941 in Miastko, then Germany, now Poland) is the chairman of the Left Party.PDS, a socialist political party with its base in the east of Germany.

After an impoverished youth in northern West Germany, he emigrated to the GDR at the age of 18, and after facing initial doubts due to his heritage was allowed to join the Socialist Unity Party in 1963, but did not rise to leadership positions until shortly after the fall of communism and the resulting purge of hardliners from the party. He was rector of the University of Film and Television (Potsdam-Babelsberg) from 1986 to 1990. Since 1991 he has been on the board of directors of regional television channel ORB.

In 1990 he was a member of the Volkskammer and since 1990 he has been a member of the state parliament in Brandenburg.

He was chairman of the PDS from 1993 until his resignation in 2000 over a defeat for the executive committee on support for United Nations military intervention. He was re-elected chairman in 2003 after this "left turn" had cost the party its seats in the Bundestag in 2002. Bisky is seen to be on the moderate, social democratic wing of the party and he is a long-time close ally of the party's most prominent figure, Gregor Gysi. He is often regarded for his abilities to lead meaningful discussions between parties of completely opposite viewpoints, be it within his own party or in media events with other groups.

The party returned strongly to the Bundestag in the 2005 election. Bisky, one of 54 Left MPs, was designated to become one of the six vice presidents of the Bundestag. When the new Bundestag was constituted on October 18, however, he failed three times to be elected. Some MPs explained this with allegations (denied by Bisky) that he was an informant of the Stasi. Later, he failed a fourth time, and subsequently gave up his bid for the vice president position.

Lothar Bisky is married and the father of three sons. The oldest son, Jens Bisky, is a journalist and writer and the second-oldest, Norbert Bisky, is a painter.