Bavarian politician Hubert Aiwanger was found dead in a hotel in Berlin on Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office in the German capital announced.
Aiwanger was deputy prime minister of Bavaria, minister of economics and chairman of the right-wing populist Free Voters party. He was 55 years old.
What do we know about the death of Hubert Aiwanger?
The circumstances of Aiwanger’s death remain unclear. Police and prosecutors in the German capital have opened an investigation.
On Wednesday evening, investigators said the goal was to “determine the precise cause of death and the circumstances surrounding it, as well as to rule out any possible foul play.”
Aiwanger was not feeling well on Wednesday, according to German tabloid Picture reported.
He was due to give a speech at the opening of the party’s headquarters in Berlin, but canceled his appearance for health reasons, German news agency dpa reported.
Aiwanger’s body was found on Wednesday evening at the “Neuer Fritz” hotel on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, according to Picture.
Markus Söder, Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria, of the Christian Social Union, said he was “deeply shocked” by the news of the death of his deputy.
“The sudden death of Hubert Aiwanger is an absolute tragedy,” Söder said in a message on X.
“Our thoughts now go first and foremost to his family and his children. We grieve with them and pray for them.”
Who was Hubert Aiwanger?
Born in Lower Bavaria in southern Germany, Aiwanger was elected to the Bavarian state parliament in 2008 with the Free Voters and became the leader of their parliamentary group.
Since 2018, his party has been part of a coalition with the center-right CSU, the Bavarian sister party of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Aiwanger served as Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the state.
Aiwanger was the face of free voters in Bavaria and throughout Germany and was known for his combative approach.
But his political success in the state did not translate to the national level, as free voters never won enough seats to come into power. Bundestagthe German federal parliament.
In the weeks leading up to the 2023 national elections, Aiwanger found himself embroiled in a national scandal when the South German Zeitung reported that he wrote an anti-Semitic tract while in high school in the 1980s that contained references to Nazi-era atrocities such as Auschwitz.
He is survived by two children. He was not married but lived with Tanja Schweiger, district administrator of Free Voters.
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