User:IWhal/Kajo Wasserhövel

Karl-Josef 'Kajo' Wasserhövel (* 17 August 1962 in Aachen) is a German politician (SPD), and cofounder and managing partner of Elephantlogic strategy consulting agency.

Education
After attending primary school in Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt and the St. Georg Highschool in Bocholt, Wasserhövel passed his university entrance qualifications in 1983. He then carried out his two-year non-military national service in the mobile geriatric care of the Bocholt Workers’ Welfare Association (Arbeiterwohlfahrt), and in 1985 began his studies at the University of Münster graduating with a Magister’s degree in modern history, philosophy and sociology in 1991.

Political and professional career
Kajo Wasserhövel has been a member of the SPD since 1978. In the early 1980s, he became involved in peace initiatives and in the Bocholt chapter of Amnesty International. From 1987 to 1989, as a representative of the Marxist Freudenberg Circle, he was a member of the federal executive committee of the SPD young socialist ‘Juso’ university groups. In 1988/89, he was the university policy advisor for the Juso university group in the General Students Committee of the University of Münster.

From 1991 to 1995, Wasserhövel headed the Juso secretariat of the Westphalia district as a full-time youth education officer. Since the mid-1990s, he has been one of the politician’s, Franz Müntefering, closest associates, accompanying him throughout his political career. In 1995, as Müntefering was the North Rhine-Westphalian ministerial office for labor, health and social affairs in Düsseldorf, he was his speechwriter. From 1995 to 1998, he continued working for Müntefering, then the Federal Secretary of the SPD, as his personal assistant in Bonn. From 1998 to 1999, as Müntefering became Minister of Construction and Transport, Wasserhövel headed his office. After Müntefering was elected SPD Secretary General in October 1999, Wasserhövel was his office manager, as well as head of the executive secretariat at the SPD party executive in Berlin until September 2002. And In October 2002, when Müntefering became parliamentary party leader of the SPD in the Bundestag, Wasserhövel continued to organize his office. He also served as head of the SPD parliamentary planning group.

On March 22, 2004, he was appointed Federal Executive Director of the SPD at the suggestion of his longtime mentor. "A quiet organizer of power," Bettina Vestring wrote in the newspaper ‘Berliner Zeitung’ about a portrait of Wasserhövel, describing his understated demeanor: "He likes to stand far back in the hall. Quietly and inconspicuously, in a discreet dark gray suit, he listens to the party conference speeches. Only those who know him approach him, exchange a few quiet words, then make way for the next person. Kajo Wasserhövel, the future federal director of the SPD, does not care for public attention. ‘He is very precise, very discreet and very down-to-earth,’ one comrade describes him. 'Above all, he is Müntefering's right-hand man.'"[1] In June 2005, Wasserhövel became the SPD's campaign manager for the early federal election on September 18, 2005: "And certainly Karl-Josef Wasserhövel, known as Kajo, at 42 years old, has one of the most thankless jobs in Germany you can think of right now," wrote Christoph Schwennicke in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "On the other hand, he wanted it that way. For years, Wasserhövel has belonged to Franz Müntefering as much as his white pack of cigarillos. From a briefcase carrier, Wasserhövel has become a coordinator of a snap election."[2]

Wasserhövel won ‘Best campaign manager of the year: 2005 Politics Award’, for his role in reducing the 21% lead the CDU held over the SPD at the beginning of the election campaign down to 1% by the end of the campaign.

Political observers have called him the ‘the SPD’s spin doctor’ for years. However, in October 2005, SPD party leader Müntefering's announcement that he would propose Wasserhövel as the party's future Secretary General triggered opposition within the party's left-wing factions, which preferred Andrea Nahles, a member of the Bundestag, for the position. The objection raised against Wasserhövel was that, although he had gained considerable merit as a successful election campaign organizer, he was too ‘apolitical’ to follow the party agenda as Secretary General and was defeated in the preliminary decision in the party executive committee. As a result, his supporter Franz Müntefering declared that he would no longer run for Federal Chairman.

Wasserhövel succeeded Müntefering as Permanent State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labor in November 2005. On September 15, 2008, Wasserhövel again became Federal Chairman.

Wasserhövel stood as a direct candidate in the Berlin constituency of Treptow-Köpenick in the 2009 federal election. However, he failed to enter the Bundestag.[3] On November 15, 2009, Wasserhövel handed over the office of SPD Federal Chair to his successor, Astrid Klug.[4]

In April 2010, Wasserhövel cofounded the strategy consultancy agency: Elephantlogic.[5] together with long-term associate Svenja Hinrichs. Hinrichs had worked together with Wasserhövel in varying roles since 1998. Elephantlogic provides services for NGO, business and political clients.

The agency is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

In 2016 Wasserhövel cofounded the association ‘Artikel 1 - Initiative für Menschenwürde e.V.[6]’. Named after the 1st article in the German Basic Law (constitution) covering human dignity and human rights, the aim of the association is to promote communication on democracy and human dignity. Wasserhövel is its cochair.

Weblinks

 * Own website (link to elepantlogic)
 * Martin Teigeler: Münteferings bester Mann, taz (Ausgabe NRW), 9. February 2004
 * Peter Dausend: Wahlkämpfer Wasserhövel zwischen Franz und Franz, Die Welt, 25. July 2005
 * Thorsten Denkler: Münteferings Schattenmann, taz, 24 October 2005
 * Stephan Haselberger: Wer ist Kajo Wasserhövel?, Der Tagesspiegel, 30 October 2005
 * Kajo Wasserhövel auf wahl.de, Activity on internet
 * Kajo Wasserhövel auf wahl.de, Activity on internet