Ottmar Schreiner

Ottmar Schreiner (born February 21, 1946 in Merzig, Saarland) is a German lawyer and left-wing politician. He is known as one of the leading leftists in his party SPD.

After his Abitur he was a part-time soldier at the paratrooper battalion in Lebach. Schreiner studied law at the University of Saarbrücken, the Free University of Berlin and the University of Lausanne.

In 1969 he became a member of the SPD. He was a member of the federal executive of the United German Students and the Jusos. At the election for the federal Juso-chairmanship in 1977 he was defeated by Klaus Uwe Benneter, who later got suspended from the SPD, and in 1978 he lost to Gerhard Schröder.

Since 1980 Schreiner has been a member of the Bundestag. He got a direct mandate in the electoral district Saarlouis, which he defended at the federal elections in 2005.

From 1991 to 1997 he was a speaker of the SPD's parliamentary group in the "Ausschuss für Arbeit und Sozialordnung" (Committee on work and social order). From 1997 to 1998 he was deputy chairman of his party's group in the Bundestag. From 1998 to 1999 he was Bundesgeschäftsführer (executive director) of the SPD. Today he is the chairman of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Arbeitnehmerfragen, a study group inside the SPD, which is reputed to be leftist and closely connected to the trade unions.

Ottmar Schreiner is a Roman Catholic, married and has three children.

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