The former Saxony-Anhalt Finance Minister Jens Bullerjahn (SPD) is dead. The 60-year-old died on Saturday in a hospital in Eisleben (Mansfeld-Südharz district). Born in Halle, Bullerjahn was finance minister in Saxony-Anhalt from 2006 to 2016.

In an interview with the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" this year, the SPD politician made it public that he suffers from the rare nervous disease ALS. This is an incurable disease of the nervous system. The newspaper also first reported on Bullerjahn's death on Saturday.

The trained electrical engineer began his political career in local politics, from 1990 to 2016 he was a member of the state parliament. As parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, he was considered one of the architects of the "Magdeburg model", which caused a sensation nationwide: From 1994 to 2002, the then Prime Minister Reinhard Höppner (SPD) led a government without his own majority and was in the state parliament on the support of the SED successor party PDS instructed.

"Social Democrat who can handle money"

Bullerjahn was later Vice-Chairman of his party from 2006 to 2007. In the state elections of 2006, he ran as a top candidate, but only came third with the SPD. His career as Minister of Finance began in the CDU-SPD coalition that followed.

"I was the one who couldn't run away fast enough," Bullerjahn joked in the fall of 2012, when the post of chairman of the collective agreement of German states was to be filled. As the top boss of the country's employers, he passed several tests - and earned respect from the union camp for it.

His rigid financial policy course as a minister opened up room for maneuver in Saxony-Anhalt. The budget was consolidated. "A social democrat who can handle money," was the headline in the "FAZ" at the time. Bullerjahn's actions always brought criticism from his own party. There was also trouble after his time as a minister, when it became known that the state government had concluded consultancy contracts that bypassed parliament.

withdrawal from politics

In the fall of 2015, Bullerjahn surprisingly announced his retirement from politics at the age of 53, when he was Germany's longest-serving finance minister. After that he published several books and enjoyed sailing.

Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) was dismayed. "With Jens Bullerjahn, Saxony-Anhalt has lost a politician who decisively shaped this state," he said on Sunday. It is thanks to Bullerjahn that the state finances could be restructured. "He created room for decision-making for future generations."

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) wrote on Twitter: "He was smart and sincere and he was my friend."