[1] He spent two years undertaking his Military service with the National People's Army[2] before moving on, in 1980, to the University of Rostock where he concluded his studies, in 1985, with a degree in Agricultural engineering.

[2] In December 1989, the month in which even the country's monolithic SED felt the need to participate with the Social Democrats in "round table talks", Backhaus, who hitherto had not engaged in politics, joined the SDP[3] and was a co-founder of its Neuhaus (Elbe) district branch.

Between March and October 1990 Backhaus sat as one of the 91 SPD members of the German Democratic Republic's first (and, as thing turned out, last) freely elected National legislative Assembly (Volkskammer).

Together with Elke Ferner, Wolfgang Jüttner, Ute Vogt and Klaus Wowereit, Backhaus co-chaired the SPD’s 2006 national convention in Berlin.

[10][11] In 2015, as the minister responsible, Backhaus was called upon to make a ministerial statement after the (presumably temporary) closure of Rostock zoo in the wake of a bird flu scare which had necessitated the precautionary killing of storks, ducks and a red ibis.

[15] Sources are silent over when the work was started, but public reaction may have been triggered by the fact that by the time he actually received the doctorate Backhaus had already been the regional Minister for Agriculture for more than two years.

There was also criticism that the dissertation had been supervised in 2000 and 2001 by Norbert Makowski, a distinguished plant-scientist who at the time was alleged to have been undertaking paid consultancy work indirectly involving the ministry.