Hubert Aiwanger, the deputy premier of Bavaria and leader of the Free Voters party, was found dead in a Berlin hotel room on Wednesday. He was 55.
Bavarian state premier Markus Söder announced the death, saying: “The sudden death of Hubert Aiwanger is a terrible tragedy. We are all deeply shocked.”
Aiwanger had travelled to Berlin for the opening of his party’s office in the German capital. According to the daily Bild newspaper, he missed the occasion after feeling unwell, and his body was later found in his hotel room.
Berlin police and prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death. In a statement, they said the aim of the inquest was to establish the specific cause of death and the circumstances surrounding it, and to rule out any possible third-party culpability. No cause of death has been announced, and officials have given no further details.
Aiwanger was more than a regional figure. As deputy minister-president — Bavaria’s deputy premier — and minister for economic affairs, regional development and energy, he was the second most powerful politician in Germany’s largest state by area, a state whose capital is Munich. He had led the Free Voters, known in German as Freie Wähler, for years, building a party rooted in town halls and local councils into a force in state government.
Since 2018, the Free Voters have governed Bavaria in coalition with the Christian Social Union (CSU), the state’s dominant conservative party and the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrats who lead Germany’s federal government. Aiwanger’s party was the junior partner in that coalition, and his economy portfolio put him at the centre of debates over energy, industry and regional development in one of Europe’s most important manufacturing regions.
That is why his sudden death matters beyond Bavaria. A deputy premier dying in office, with the cause still unknown, leaves immediate questions that Munich has not yet answered: who takes over the economy ministry, who leads the Free Voters, and whether the coalition that has run Bavaria since 2018 holds steady through the transition. None of those succession arrangements had been announced when the death was confirmed.
The death also lands during a restless autumn in German politics, with large youth-led protests sweeping German cities in recent days. Aiwanger’s party had positioned itself as a voice for local communities against Berlin, and his trip to open a party office in the capital was itself a sign of ambitions that reached beyond Bavaria’s borders.
For now, the facts are narrow and the unknowns are wide. A 55-year-old deputy premier went to Berlin for a party event, fell ill, and was found dead in his hotel room. The police investigation will determine what happened — and until it reports, speculation about the cause would only cloud a death that has already shaken Bavaria’s government.
