Michael Naumann

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[edit] Life

Dr. Michael Naumann (born 8 December 1941 in Köthen (Anhalt)) is a German politician, publisher and journalist. He was the German minister of culture from 1998 until 2001. He is married to Marie Warburg, daughter of Eric Warburg and granddaughter of Max Warburg.

[edit] Education and Career

Michael Naumann graduated with a Ph.D. in political science from Munich University in 1969 and continued his studies as a Florey scholar at Queen's College, Oxford. Naumann wrote his habilitation on "Structural Change of Heroism, from Sacred to Profane" in 1978; he has also written a number of academic essays on theories of revolution.

Naumann worked for Die Zeit and Der Spiegel. In 1985 Naumann became Publisher of the Rowohlt Verlag. 1995 he went to New York, first leading Metropolitan Books, then Henry Holt. Between 1998 and 2001 he was the first cultural minister of the Federal Republic before returning to the world of publishing. In 2007 he became the official SPD candidate for the mayor election in Hamburg 2008.

He was a host of a highbrow political talkshow in German television, "Talk im Palais".

The election in Hamburg caused some trouble for the German Social dems. After an election in Hessia,which did not bring a majority to the social dem, social dem head Beck left it open to local social dems in West Germany to form local coalitions with the ex-communists, the leftparty. The election in Hamburg was not far away when Beck made a somehow ambigous statement towards such a coalition whereas before, he utterly denied it.This caused a huge debate in the media in the final crucial week of the Hamburg election, overshadowing the issues of Naumann's campaign themes, social justice, better education and improvement of Hamburg's infrastructure. The crucial swing votes, according to pollsters, of the final week deserted the social dems to the tune of app. 3% and switched to the conservatives - or stayed at home. depriving Naumann of the chances to form a coalition with the Greens.

Still, the numbers out of the election in Hamburg were good for the social dems. They gained 3 % compared to 2004. Naumann though stuck to his promise not to form a coalition with the leftist party - which would not have gained him a majority in the parliament of the city state of Hamburg, anyway, since the Greens had already made it clear that they'd rather go with the conservatives, which they did eventually.