Dr. Dietmar Woidke was born 1961 in Naundorf in southern Brandenburg. He studied agriculture and animal production/ alimentary physiology at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1987 he completed his diploma course and started work as an assistant at the institute for alimentary physiology at Humboldt University. In 1993 he received his Ph.D. in agriculture. Since 1993 he is a member of the SPD in the district of Brandenburg. That same year he became chief officer for agriculture in the local authorities of the district Spree-Neiße. In 1994 he was elected Member of Parliament of the state of Brandenburg for the electoral district 43 (Spree-Neiße II), serving as agro-political speaker of the SPD-fraction. He was the chairman of the administrative board of the waste disposal corporation Neiße- Spree. Since 2004 he is minister for Rural Development, Environment and Consumer Protection of the Federal State of Brandenburg.