GERMAN WOMEN MAYORS

Germany’s female mayors

August 2023: There is no denying it, Germany’s cities are still overwhelmingly ruled by men. After the rather short tenure of Franziska Giffey in Berlin, there is only one female mayor among the country’s top ten cities. Of the 80 Grossstädte – cities with more than 100,000 residents - only ten have women mayors. The best known one, and one of Germany’s longest-serving mayors, is Cologne’s Henriette Reker. Elected in 2015, after she survived an assassination attempt, Henriette Reker has become a role model for women in local government (Kommunalverwaltung).

 

Germany’s largest cities with female mayors

• Rank 4: Cologne (1,074,000) Mayor Heriette Reker

• Rank 19: Bonn (332,000) Mayor Katja Dörner

• Rank 23: Augsburg (297,000) Mayor Eva Weber

• Rank 26: Gelsenkirchen (261,000) Mayor Karin Welge

• Rank 27: Aachen (250,000) Mayor Sibylle Keupen

• Rank 32: Magdeburg (237,000) Mayor Simone Borris

• Rank 39: Rostock (209,000) Mayor Eva-Maria Kröger

• Rank 45: Ludwigshafen (173,000) Mayor Jutta Steinruck

• Rank 48: Osnabrück (166,000) Mayor Katharina Pötter

• Rank 54: Regensburg (154,000) Mayor Gertrud Malts-Schwarzfischer

 

Women in German local government

In 2022, research by the Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation found that the number of women elected to German town and city councils (Stadträte) is increasing, albeit at a very slow rate. In 2011, women made up some 33 per cent of council members, a figure that stood at slightly above 37 per cent in 2022. Only in Kassel (Hesse), women formed a majority in the city parliament. Other cities with more than 45 per cent of female councillors include Offenbach, Frankfurt, Mainz, Nürnberg, Darmstadt and Würzburg. Communities in the Ruhr region perform below par. In cities like Gelsenkirchen, Solingen and Salzgitter women make up less than 30 per cent of local councillors.

 

Profile of women mayors

Germany’s most recent research into women in local government was conducted by German Brief. The survey’s authors looked at communities which are led by Lord Mayors (Oberbürgermeister). In large cities and unitary towns (kreisfreie Städte) the heads of local government carry the title Oberbürgermeister rather than Bürgermeister (mayor). The research involved some 331 cities.

 

German Brief found that among the 331 towns and cities surveyed only 29 (8.8%) had women as mayors. As said above, the group’s best-known member is Cologne’s mayor Henriette Reker. In office since 2015, she survived an assassination attempt during her first mayoral campaign. Prior to her election, she was deputy mayor in Gelsenkirchen and later, from 2010 to 2015, deputy mayor in Cologne. In 2020, she was elected for a second term.

 

Germany’s longest-serving female mayor is Cornelia Petzold-Schick, the mayor of Bruchsal (Baden-Württemberg). In 2009, it took her two rounds of voting for to be chosen, whereas eight years later, she won re-election in the first round with more than three quarters of the vote (78%). (In Baden-Württemberg, mayors serve eight-year terms).

 

While the number of female mayors in Germany is deplorably low, there are some hopeful signs. Since 2020, some 18 women were for the first time elected to the office of Oberbürgermeister. Among them, Eva Weber in Augsburg; Gertrud Malts-Schwarzfischer in Regensburg; Eva-Maria Kröger in Rostock; Katharina Pötter in Osnabrück; Sibylle Keupen in Aachen and Katja Dörner in Bonn.

 

Most women mayors have academic qualifications, mostly in law. While there are eleven mayors with legal degrees, German Brief could only identify three women who did not go to university but instead completed an apprenticeship after finishing high school.

 

Among the group of 29 female mayors there are eight who ran as independents. Politically, independents tend to be centrists, often supporting environmental policies. Seven mayors belong the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). The centre-right sister parties CDU and CSU can count on five mayors. The Green party is represented by two mayors, while three female mayors belong to the left-wing party Die Linke (the Left).

 

German political parties
• Social Democrats, SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands); centre-left
• Christian Democrats, CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union); centre-right
• Christian Social Union, CSU (Christlich Soziale Union); centre-right, sister party of the CDU, active only in Bavaria
• The Greens (Die Grünen); centre-left, environmental

• The Left (Die Linke); left-wing

• Alternative for Germany. AfD (Alternative für Deutschland); right-wing

• Free Voters (Freie Wähler); local or regional political associations, supporting mostly centre-right and conservative policies.

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Germany’s women mayors