Karsten Voigt

Karsten Dietrich Voigt (born 11 April 1941 in Elmshorn) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Early life and education
From 1960–1969, Voigt studied history, German, and Scandinavian languages and literature at the universities in Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Frankfurt.

Political career
From 1969 until 1972, Voigt was chairman of the Jusos.

From 1976 to 1998, Voigt was a member of the German parliament, representing Frankfurt am Main I - Main-Taunus. In 1976, he was elected to the Bundestag for the first time. In 1983, the SPD parliamentary group made him their foreign policy spokesman; he held this office until leaving the parliament in 1998.

From 1999 to 2010, Voigt served as the "Coordinator of German-North American Cooperation" at the Foreign Office of Germany, under successive foreign ministers Joschka Fischer and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He is a board member of the Atlantik-Brücke, an association which promotes German-American understanding.

Other activities

 * Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, Member of the Supervisory Board
 * Einstein Forum, Member of the Board of Trustees
 * Ernst Reuter Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees
 * German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Member of the Steering Committee
 * European Leadership Network (ELN), Senior Network Member