Kurt Beck (born 5 February 1949) is a German politician (SPD), who served as the 7th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On 14 May 2006 he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post on 7 September 2008. On 28 September 2012 he announced his resignation from the post of minister-president. He was succeeded by social minister Malu Dreyer.Following Peter Struck's death in 2012, Kurt Beck together with Dieter Schulte took chair of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.