Fritz Kuhn (born 29 June 1955) is a German politician who served as Mayor of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

from 2012 until 2021. He was co-chairman of

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

, the German

Green party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

, in 2002 and its parliamentary group from 2002 to 2013.

Early life and education

Fritz Kuhn was born in

Bad Mergentheim Bad Mergentheim (; Mergentheim until 1926; East Franconian: ''Märchedol'') is a town in the Main-Tauber-Kreis district in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It has a population of around 23,000. An officially recognized spa town since 1926, B ...

(

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

) and grew up in

Memmingen Memmingen (; Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Wü ...

(

Bayern Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

), where he attended Bernhard Strigel grammar school. After his A-levels he studied German and philosophy at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

and the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, with a master's thesis in the field of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Political career

Kuhn was one of the founding members of the Green Party in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980. From 1981 to 1984 he worked as a research assistant at Augsburg university and as a consultant to the parliamentary party of the Greens in the state parliament (''Landtag'') of Baden-Württemberg (South-West Germany). His „Biographie" in WirtschaftsWoche Online (wiwo.de)

Member of the State Parliament in Baden-Württemberg

Kuhn became an MP and the leader of the parliamentary party of the Greens (Alliance 90/The Greens from 1993) in the

Landtag of Baden-Württemberg The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet (assembly), diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 Baden-Württemberg ...

, the state's legislature, in 1984, a position he held until 1988, and then later again from 1992 to 2000, having worked as a Professor of Linguistic Communication in the years in between. Kuhn was one of the two federal chairpersons of Alliance 90/The Greens from 2000 to 2002, first together with

Renate Künast Renate Elly Künast (born 15 December 1955) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens party. She was the Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture from 2001 to 2005 and subsequently served as chairwoman of her party's parliame ...

, then with

Claudia Roth Claudia Benedikta Roth (born 15 May 1955) is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens). She was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the President of the Bundestag, vice presidents of the ''Bundestag'' ...

. He resigned from that office in October 2002 after having been elected as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany; at the time, there was a rule in the Green Party that you could not be an MP and hold a party office at the same time.

Member of the German Parliament, 2002–2012

Fritz Kuhn first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2002 federal elections. In the immediate aftermath of the elections, he was part of the Green Party's team in the negotiations with the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

on a coalition agreement for the second

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

under the leadership of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ...

. In the Bundestag, Kuhn specialized in the fields of the economy (fighting for "a green market economy") and employment, and foreign policy. From 2002 until 2005, he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Between 2005 and 2009, Kuhn was one of the two leaders of the Green parliamentary party (together with

), from 2009 he served as deputy leader. For the 2005 federal elections, Kuhn was the campaign manager of Alliance 90/The Greens. At the 2009 election, he unsuccessfully contested the single member constituency of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. Between 2007 and 2009, Kuhn was one of 32 members of the Second Commission on the modernization of the federal state (''Föderalismuskommission II''), which had been established to reform the division of powers between federal and state authorities in Germany.

Mayor of Stuttgart, 2012–present

On 21 October 2012 Kuhn was elected Lord Mayor of

in Baden-Württemberg with 52.9% of the votes. His 8-year-term as Mayor ''(Oberbürgermeister)'' began in January 2013. Stuttgart has a population of about 600,000 and is capital city of the

Federal State A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

of ''Baden-Württemberg''. Kuhn was the first candidate of the

German Green party Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (fo ...

to win in a city of such importance. Kuhn took over from

Wolfgang Schuster Wolfgang Schuster (born 5 September 1949 in Ulm) is the former Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Germany, from January 1997 until January 2013. He was the successor to Manfred Rommel and he is a member of the CDU. Career Studies and early positions Sch ...

, his predecessor, on 7 January 2013. In early 2020, he announced that he would not stand in the next elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of his second term later that year.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) is a universal bank and the Landesbank for some Federal States of Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Sachsen). As of 2018, it is Germany's biggest state-backed landesbank lender. LBBW is a full-serv ...

(LBBW), Ex-Officio Member of the Supervisory Board *

Stuttgart Airport Stuttgart Airport (German: ''Flughafen Stuttgart'', formerly ''Flughafen Stuttgart-Echterdingen'') is the international airport of Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's forme ...

, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board *

Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart The ''Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart GmbH'' (VVS; en, Stuttgart Transport and Tariff Association LLC) is a transport association that coordinates the local public transport in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, as well as in th ...

(VVS), Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory Board * Stadtwerke Stuttgart, Ex-Officio Chairman of the Supervisory BoardSupervisory Board
Stadtwerke Stuttgart.

Non-profit organizations

Heinrich Böll Foundation The Heinrich Böll Foundation (german: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V., HBS) is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was founded in 1997 when three predecessors merged. The foundation was n ...

, Member of the Board *

Max Planck Institute for Medical Research The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is a facility of the Max Planck Society for basic medical research. Since its foundation, six Nobel Prize laureates worked at the Institute: Otto Fritz Meyerhof (Physiology), R ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees *

Theaterhaus Stuttgart Theaterhaus Stuttgart is a theatre in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, an ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

Kuhn is married and has two sons. Kuhn also supports the football club

FC Bayern München Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

References

External links (in German)

Official website

''Wirtschaftswoche''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhn, Fritz 1955 births Living people Mayors of Stuttgart Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag for Alliance 90/The Greens Leaders of political parties in Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg