Dominik Krause becomes mayor of Munich.Image: imago
A 35-year-old Green man becomes the new mayor of Munich. In general, the elections in Germany’s largest federal state caused surprises.
Mar 22, 2026, 8:47 p.mMarch 23, 2026, 07:42
The runoff elections for the top positions in Bavaria’s town halls and district offices have led to several local political earthquakes. The CSU received a severe setback and lost around a dozen district administrator positions in addition to several mayoral offices. The main beneficiaries are Hubert Aiwanger’s Free Voters. One realization became clear across the Free State: the official bonus was worth less in this election than it was six years ago.
The most spectacular election took place in Munich. After 42 years of SPD dominance, the state capital will now be governed by a green mayor. Dominik Krause, who was only 35 years old, achieved a brilliant election victory with more than 56 percent of the vote against the 67-year-old incumbent Dieter Reiter from the SPD.
Reiter was recently criticized for his handling of club mandates at FC Bayern Munich, including remuneration. The SPD politician, who entered the race as the overwhelming favorite, had to lose points in the first round of voting.
Rider: “I screwed up”
Reiter took the blame for the election defeat with clear words: “I screwed up.” The election result was his fault, he emphasized. “It was an honor to be the mayor of this city.” Reiter, who ruled Munich for 12 years, announced the end of his political career: “That’s it from me.”
In Bavaria’s third largest city, Augsburg, the incumbent Eva Weber from the CSU also suffered a bitter defeat. Weber, who has been at the helm of the Fuggerstadt since 2020, had to clearly admit defeat to the SPD challenger Florian Freund.
Defeat for the CSU
Weber’s defeat was perhaps the most spectacular in a series of defeats for the CSU. In Regensburg, the CSU was unable to win the runoff election despite a massive lead from its candidate Astrid Freudenstein – she lost to SPD man Thomas Burger.
General Secretary Martin Huber described the election results for his party as “very mixed”. “Great successes in Nuremberg, Erlangen or Landshut, Hof and Aschaffenburg, but also painful defeats,” Huber told the German Press Agency.
Especially in the countryside, which had previously been the domain of the Christian Socialists, they had to give up and were surprisingly often defeated by the Free Voters in district elections – for example in Ansbach, the Ostallgäu, the Main-Spessart district and in Kelheim. In Aichach-Friedberg, CSU candidate Peter Tomaschko lost to Mark Sturm (FW) by just 22 votes. According to their own information, the Free Voters doubled the number of their district council positions from 14 to 28.
CSU holds Nuremberg
In Bavaria’s second-largest city, Nuremberg, Mayor Marcus König of the CSU, who has been in power since 2020, was able to prevail against SPD challenger Nasser Ahmed – with 55.5 percent of the vote, however, not nearly as clearly as the outcome of the first round of voting on March 8th might have suggested. At that time, König was leading by around 20 percentage points.
In Schweinfurt, the SPD took back the town hall from the CSU after more than 30 years – Ralf Hofmann is the new head of the Lower Franconian industrial city. In Neustadt bei Coburg, a large district town in Upper Franconia, the longest-serving mayor in Germany was voted out. Frank Rebhan has to vacate his desk after more than 30 years in office; Dominik W. Heike from the CSU was elected.
Lots of changes in town halls
In Aschaffenburg, police chief Markus Schlemmer, who stood for the CSU, replaced the incumbent Jürgen Herzing (SPD) – this is the first time in decades that a CSU man will be in charge of the city on the Lower Main. In Hof, too, SPD mayor Eva Döhla has to vacate her post and hand it over to CSU candidate Stefan Schmalfuss. The same picture in Erlangen: Jörg Volleth (CSU) replaces Florian Janik (SPD).
In Bamberg, the executive chair in the town hall remains in SPD hands: Sebastian Niedermaier prevailed in the runoff against Green candidate Jonas Glüsenkamp, succeeding his party colleague Andreas Starke, who no longer ran.
However, the Greens can score points in the district election in Landsberg am Lech: According to the preliminary final results, Green politician Daniela Gross prevailed with 61.5 percent of the vote against the incumbent Thomas Eichinger (CSU). It is the only district administrator position for the party in the Free State.
Lower voter turnout
When the weather was good, Bayern obviously had less desire to vote than they did two weeks ago. In the afternoon, the turnout for the runoff election in the three largest Bavarian cities was significantly lower than in the first round two weeks earlier. In the first round of voting two weeks ago, voter turnout across Bavaria was 63.4 percent – 4.7 percent higher than in the previous local elections, which also fell in the early phase of the corona pandemic. (sda/dpa)