Hans-Ulrich Rülke is a German teacher and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been a member of 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 ...

from 2006 to 2016 and again since 2016. He has chaired his party's parliamentary group since 2009 and served as its deputy leader in Baden-Württemberg since 2013. He was the FDP's lead candidate for the state elections in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Early life and career

Rülke was born on 3 October 1961 in

Tuttlingen Tuttlingen (; Alemannic: ''Duttlinga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Tuttlingen. Nendingen, ''Möhringen'' and ''Eßlingen'' are three former municipalities that belong to Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen is located in Swabia ...

. He attended primary and secondary school in

Singen Singen (; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Singe'') is an industrial city in the very south of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany and just north of the German-Swiss border. Location Singen is an industrial city situated in the far sout ...

before studying German language and literature, politics, history, and sociology in

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

. In 1993 he taught at Hilda-Gymnasium in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the ...

, and from 2001 to 2005 he was specialist advisor for politics and economy at the high school office in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

Political career

Rülke became a member of the Free Democratic Party in 1985. In 1999 he became chairman of the Pforzheim FDP association. The same year, he was elected to the city council of Pforzheim, and has retained his seat ever since. He served as leader of the FDP group in the council from 2001 to 2011. In 2014, he became leader of the joint FDP/Free Voter group. After the 2019 local elections, the FDP formed a group with the Free Voters, Independent Citizens, and Parents List, of which Hans-Ulrich became leader. In July 2019 the council elected him deputy mayor of Pforzheim. Rülke was elected to the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg in the 2006 state election as a member of the Free Democratic Party. After the retirement of Ulrich Noll in June 2009, he was elected the leader of the FDP parliamentary group. He became co-deputy leader of the state party association in 2013, and a member of the federal FDP executive in 2019. Rülke was the FDP's lead candidate for the

2016 Baden-Württemberg state election The 2016 Baden-Württemberg state election was held on 13 March 2016 to elect the members of the 15th Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. The incumbent government of Alliance 90/The Greens, The Greens and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social ...

. The party achieved a 3.0- point swing, a marked improvement from its poor performance of 5.3% in 2011. The party's parliamentary group expanded from 7 to 12 members. Following the 2021 state elections, he led his party's delegation in the negotiations with Minister-President

Winfried Kretschmann Winfried Kretschmann (; born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the President o ...

's Alliance '90/Greens on a potential

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Rülke was part of his party's delegation in the working group on migration and integration, co-chaired by

Boris Pistorius Boris Ludwig Pistorius (; born 14 March 1960) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as Federal Minister of Defence in the governments of successive Chancellors Olaf Scholz and Fri ...

, Luise Amtsberg and Joachim Stamp.Ampel-Koalition: Das sind die Verhandlungsteams von SPD, Grünen und FDP
''

Deutschlandfunk Deutschlandfunk (DLF, ''Broadcast Germany'') is a public-broadcasting radio station in Germany, concentrating on news and current affairs. It is one of the four national radio channels produced by Deutschlandradio. History Broadcasting in t ...

'', October 27, 2021.

Personal life

Rülke is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rulke, Hans-Ulrich 1961 births Living people People from Tuttlingen Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg 21st-century German politicians