The Head of the State Chancellery is state minister Rainer Robra

Rainer Robra was born on the 15th of October 1951 in Nienhof/Celle, Germany. After studying Law in Göttingen and Hamburg and taking the Second State Exam in 1979, he started working as a judge in Hannover, before becoming a public prosecutor in Celle. In 1986, he moved to the Ministry of Justice in Lower Saxony. Finally, he worked there as the director of the criminal law unit. From 1990 to 1994, he was the undersecretary of justice in Saxony-Anhalt, and from 1994 to 2002, he worked as a lawyer (he was a founding member of the Remmers-Robra-Meyer Chancery).

Robra has been Minister of State and Head of the Chancellery Office, as well as a Minister for Europe since 2002. Since 2016, he has also been the Minister for Culture in Saxony-Anhalt. In taking on this role, he is the chair of the board of trustees for the Dessau-Wörlitz Cultural Foundation, chair of the foundation council for the Bahaus Dessau Foundation, chair of the foundation council for the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation. Furthermore, he has been the chair of the foundation councils for the Monastery of Our Lady and Bergesche Monastery foundations, as well as acting chair in the foundation council for the German Centre of Lost Cultural Items Foundation since 2017. Furthermore, Robra is a member of the foundation councils for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the German Federal Culture Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States, as well as a member of the board of trustees for the North/LB Cultural Foundation.

He is additionally responsible for Federal and European affairs, as well as state media policy. 

On top of that, he has been a member of the Federal Council and a member of the Committee on the European Union since 2002. As a Member of the Federal Council, he is a member of the Political Committee and the Conference of European Affairs Committees (COSAC). He was a member of the NATO Partnership Subcommittee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2011 to 2016.

Since 2002, the politician has been a member of the ZDF Television Board. He is the chair of the supervisory board in the State Winery Monastery Pforta GmbH and since 2018 he has also been the chair of the supervisory board of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (Central German Media Fund) GmbH. From 2007 to 2017, he was on the supervisory board of the Investment and Marketing Corporation Saxony-Anhalt and from 2012 to 2016, he was a member of the administrative board of the state bank.

Robra is the managing director of the “Constitutional State of Saxony-Anhalt Registered Foundation” and until 2017, he was the chair of the State Association Saxony-Anhalt for support for past offenders. He was also the chair of the St Martin zu Spielberg church building association until 2017. From 1992 to 2002, the politician was a member of the permanent deputation of the German Bar Association and the chair of the criminal law unit.

Rainer Robra is married and has three children.