Peter Schowtka

Peter Georg Schowtka (Upper Sorbian: Pětr Jurij Šołtka; 7 January 1945 – 5 August 2022) was a German politician who served as a member of the Landtag of Saxony from 1991 to 2014. Schowtka was an ethnic Sorb.

Peter Schowtka
Pětr Šołtka
Schowtka in 2013
Member of the Landtag of Saxony
In office
November 1991 – 31 August 2014
Preceded byKarl Sachse
Succeeded byConstituency disestablished
Constituency
  • Niederschlesische Oberlausitz 2 constituency (1999–2014)
  • Party list (1991–1999)
Mayor of Wittichenau
In office
1990–1994
Preceded byOffice re-established
Succeeded byUdo Popella
Personal details
Born(1945-01-07)7 January 1945
Wittichenau, Saxony, Germany
Died5 August 2022(2022-08-05) (aged 77)
Political partyChristian Democratic Union (1989–2022)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (until 1989)
Children1
Alma materUniversity of Rostock
AwardsSaxon Constitutional Medal

Early life and education

Schowtka was born on 7 January 1945 in the town of Wittichenau in Saxony, then part of Nazi Germany. Six months after his birth, Schowtka's father was kidnapped by the Soviet occupation force and taken to the NKVD Special Camp No. 1 in Mühlberg, where he was killed in 1947. Schowtka was a Roman Catholic of Sorb ethnicity.[1][2]

Schowtka grew up in East Germany. From 1961 to 1964, he received vocational training as a concrete worker. Schowtka attended the University of Rostock from 1964 until 1969, where he studied Latin American studies. However, Schowtka was denied a diploma due to his "lack of socio-political maturity".[1][2]

Career

From 1969 until 1990, Schowtka worked as an economist, and he later served as an interpreter for foreigners working in lignite mines in Mozambique.[1]

In 1989, Schowtka joined the Christian Democratic Union. He had previously been an independent. From 1991 until his death in 2022, Schowtka served as a member of the CDU's executive committee in Saxony.[1] Schowtka helped establish a CDU educational institute for local government in Saxony. He also negotiated a sister city partnership between Wittichenau and the town of Bad Honnef in North Rhine-Westphalia.[3]

In 1990, upon German reunification, Schowtka was elected mayor of Wittichenau, the first person freely elected to that office in 57 years.[4] The next year, Schowtka became a member of the Landtag of Saxony following the resignation of Karl Sachse; Schowtka was to fill the remainder of Sachse's term. In the 1994 Saxony state election, Schowtka was elected via party list for a full term in the Landtag, and he resigned as mayor. In the 1999 Saxony state election, Schowtka was re-elected to represent the Niederschlesische Oberlausitz 2 constituency (Lower Silesian Upper Lusatia constituency 2).[1] Schowtka was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. He did not run for re-election in the 2014 Saxony state election.[2][5]

While in the state parliament, Schowtka served on several parliamentary committees, including the Home Affairs Committee and the Constitutional, Legal and European Committee.[2] He was also a member of a committee established to investigate the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi terrorist group.[6]

In 2016, Schowtka received the Saxon Constitutional Medal. Schowtka was married and had one child. He died on 5 August 2022 at the age of 77.[1][3]

References
  1. Schulz, Uwe (9 August 2022). "Peter Schowtka verstorben" [Peter Schowtka passed away]. Sächsische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  2. "Peter Schowtka, CDU". Landtag of Saxony (in German). Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  3. "Früherer Wittichenauer Bürgermeister verstorben" [Former mayor of Wittichenau died]. hoyte24.de (in German). 8 August 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  4. "725 Jahre Stadtrechte" [725 Years of City Rights]. Partnership Committee of Wittichenau/Bad Honnef (in German). Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  5. Kolodziej, Mirko (4 August 2014). "Der Wahlkampf hat begonnen" [The election campaign has begun]. Die Hoyerswerdsche (in German). Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  6. "Untersuchungsausschuss Neonazistische Terrornetzwerke in Sachsen" [Committee of Inquiry into Neo-Nazi Terrorist Networks in Saxony]. Landtag of Saxony (in German). 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
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