Mar 22, 2026, 8:47 p.mMar 22, 2026, 8:47 p.m
Dominik Krause will probably become mayor of Munich.Image: imago
Major shifting of chairs in Bavaria’s municipalities: The runoff elections for the top positions in Bavaria’s town halls and district offices have led to several local political earthquakes. After 42 years of SPD dominance, the state capital Munich will probably be governed by a green mayor in the future. In the evening, Dominik Krause, who was only 35 years old, was on the verge of a brilliant election victory against incumbent Dieter Reiter from the SPD (67).
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 give up massively 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.” He 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.
CSU holds Nuremberg
In Nuremberg, Mayor Marcus König of the CSU, who has been in power since 2020, was able to prevail against SPD challenger Nasser Ahmed – but with 55.5 percent of the vote, this was nowhere near as clear 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 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 defeated Green candidate Jonas Glüsenkamp in the runoff election, 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)