Product Code Database
Gerhard Max Trabert (born 3 July 1956) is a German public figure. By profession he is a general practitioner and emergency medicine doctor but is also known as a professor of social medicine and social psychiatry, as well as an author of books. In the 1970s, he was involved in professional sports.
He was also a political candidate for Die Linke in the 2022 German presidential election and the 2021 German federal election. He was the top candidate on the Rhineland-Palatinate state list in the 2025 German federal election.
Trabert studied social work at the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences from 1975 to 1979, graduating with a degree in social education. After completing his studies, Trabert worked in medical social work. In 1983 he began studying human medicine, which he completed in 1989 at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. During his studies, Trabert received a scholarship from the . After completing his studies, Trabert was awarded a doctorate in medicine by the medical faculty of the University of Mainz with his dissertation on the health situation and medical care of homeless people . Trabert worked clinically for ten years in hospitals in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. His focus was internal medicine, specifically the medical and psychosocial care of oncology patients. He trained as a general practitioner for family medicine and as an emergency medicine doctor. From the beginning of his medical career, he completed numerous assignments abroad, including in India, Bangladesh and the United States. During his trip through India, Trabert became acquainted with the "outreach health care concept" Medical Streetwork, which primarily treated patients with leprosy. The guiding principle of this concept is: "If the patient does not come to the doctor, the doctor comes to the patient." Inspired by this work and his experiences there, he transferred this medical approach to the health care of homeless people. In 1994, he founded the Mainz Model, a medical care facility for homeless people. With a "mobile doctor", Trabert and his colleagues visit certain locations and offer medical help free of charge. Trabert was the first doctor in Germany to receive statutory health insurance approval for this form of mobile practice.
He is the author of numerous specialist articles on the subject of poverty and health, child poverty, poverty and suicidality, and children of parents with cancer. Trabert is also the author of children's books on the subject of cancer. In 1998 he founded the association, and is a member of the . He is also the founder and chairman of the Flüsterpost association. From 1999 to 2009 he was a professor of medicine and social medicine at the Georg Simon Ohm University in Nuremberg, and since 2009 he has been a professor of social medicine and social psychiatry in the social work department at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. He is also the owner of the G. Trabert publishing house.
In 2013, Trabert set up the “Ambulance without Borders” in the city of Mainz. The organisation employs twenty doctors, nurses and social workers and provides uninsured patients including homeless people with free medical treatment.
In the 2022 German presidential election on 13 February 2022, Die Linke nominated Trabert as its candidate against the incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was running for another term. Trabert wanted to use this candidacy, in his own words, to draw attention to poverty and social injustice in Germany: "It's not about me. It's about the people I'm committed to," he said. Trabert received 96 of the 1,437 votes cast in the Federal Assembly, 25 more than the number of representatives The Left had.
Re-elected President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed Trabert directly in his speech on February 13, 2022:
"Permit me, dear Professor Trabert, to say one more thing. With your candidacy, you have drawn attention to an issue that deserves more attention: the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable in our country. You deserve not only respect for this, but I hope that your momentum will continue." – Frank-Walter SteinmeierSteinmeier also suggested a meeting with Trabert in order to "bring more attention to this pressing issue together". This meeting took place on 4 March 2022 at Bellevue Palace. They discussed concrete measures and actions to help poor people.
The promised visit of the Federal President to Mainz took place on June 2, 2022. Steinmeier visited the mobile doctor's unit for the homeless and was very impressed by Trabert's work. Long-term cooperation in combating poverty was discussed.
As part of his candidacy, Trabert pointed out the turning a blind eye to the conditions of refugees and poor people in Germany and drew a parallel to the turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the National Socialist era: "Just as many Germans knew back then what was happening to the Jews, today we know what is happening to refugees in the Mediterranean, in and camps. We know how poverty is increasing, we know about the increased death rate of poor people here in Germany too."
Trabert also said of the situation in Germany: "The courts are also abusing their power to silence criticism in this democracy. We cannot accept that." Although Trabert was referring to the criminalization of sea rescue workers, his statements were criticized from various sides.
At the end of 2022, Trabert was one of the first signatories of a petition and campaign by DiEM25 to abandon the debt brake of the German balanced budget amendment.
In February 2023, he was the first signatory of the "Manifesto for Peace" petition to Olaf Scholz, initiated by Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer, which called for diplomacy and and against further "escalating arms deliveries" to Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion.
In July 2023, the proposed Trabert for fourth place on the party's candidate list for the 2024 European elections. Since the party received only three seats with 2.7 percent of the vote, he missed out on a place in the European Parliament.
In the 2025 German federal election, Trabert will run again in the Mainz constituency. He will be the top candidate on the Rhineland-Palatinate state list.
|
|
