Dr. Gregor Gysi, born on 16 January 1948 in Berlin, is a German politician, lawyer and publicist.
After training as a skilled labourer in cattle breeding, he studied law at Humboldt University in Berlin and has worked as a lawyer since 1971. He is one of the formative personalities of the Left Party and its predecessor organisations.
Gregor Gysi Lecture topics
- Is a classic national growth policy still possible in a global economy?
- ‘Hunger for the tertiary’ – no salvation for post-industrial societies?
- The middle class as an obsolete model in the age of globalisation?
From late 1989 to 1992, he was chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and played a central role in the transformation of the party following German reunification. From March to October 1990, he was a member of the last People’s Chamber of the GDR and Chairman of the PDS parliamentary group. From 1990 to 2002 and again from 2005, he was a directly elected member of the German Bundestag and for many years Chairman of the PDS and later the Left Party parliamentary group. In 2002, he took over the office of Mayor and Senator for Economics, Labour and Women’s Issues in Berlin for a few months.
In addition to his political career, Gregor Gysi is a lawyer, publicist and sought-after speaker. His lectures deal with topics such as the future of SMEs in a globalised economy, the challenges of a post-industrial society and the question of whether national growth policies are still possible in a global economy.
Since 2023, he has co-hosted the podcast Gysi gegen Guttenberg – Der Deutschland Podcast with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, in which they discuss current political issues in a controversial manner.