Mike Schubert
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Mike Schubert (born 3 February 1973) is a German political scientist and local politician (SPD). He has been Lord Mayor of the Brandenburg state capital Potsdam since 28 November 2018.
Schubert was born in 1973 as the third child of canoeist Manfred Schubert and his wife in Schwedt, Frankfurt district, GDR.[1] His parents were both competitive athletes and had jobs in the city.[2] When Schubert's father moved to Potsdam in 1975 to help set up the ASK Vorwärts canoeing center, the family left Schwedt in August of the same year.[2] Soon after moving to Potsdam, Schubert's mother became seriously ill and died shortly afterwards.[1]
Schubert's father later remarried, and Schubert grew up with two older step-siblings in Potsdam's Zentrum Ost district. He entered the POS 38 (now the Peter-Joseph-Lenné comprehensive school) in 1979, and graduated in 1989 with a secondary school leaving certificate. Immediately afterwards, he began training as an industrial electronics technician in Teltow.[2] After the social change of the GDR, he was forced to abandon his apprenticeship due to loss of career prospects.[3]
After a failed attempt to become self-employed as a retail salesman,[2] Schubert worked as a freelance insurance agent from May 1994 to March 1996. In June 1996, Schubert was called up for military service.[3] After basic training, he extended his service in the IV Corps as a press soldier in Geltow. He passed the aptitude test at the University of Potsdam and began studying economics and political science in 1997, graduating with a degree in political science in 2004. During his studies, Schubert worked for various members of the state parliament. Schubert also spent six months in Kosovo as a reservist.[2] During this time, he used his deployment leave to volunteer for two weeks in the summer of 2002 to help clean up the damage caused by the Elbe flood in Dresden.[2][3]