Berlin election: Five lawmakers look back as they leave parliament

Berlin will elect a new House of Representatives on Sept. 20, and many new lawmakers are expected to enter the state parliament. At the same time, long-serving members across the parties have decided not to stand again. Five of them look back on their careers and what comes next.

Klaus Lederer, 52, first entered parliament for the Left in 2003. After the 2016 election, he joined the government as culture senator and mayor. He returned to the Left’s parliamentary group in 2023, and later became an independent member after leaving the party in October 2024. “It was a very demanding and eventful time, with highs and lows, but I would not want to miss a single day,” he said.

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It was a very demanding and eventful time, with highs and lows, but I would not want to miss a single day.

Lederer decided early that 2026 would be his final election. He said the intensity of the work had left its mark and that such a commitment required planning for life afterward. He intends to continue writing, work on projects he considers important and pass on his experience.

Andreas Geisel, 60, served with the Social Democrats in the state parliament from 2016 and held government posts from 2014 to 2023, including responsibility for construction and the interior. As interior senator, he faced criticism after serious problems in the 2021 state election. He said Berlin had been under constant pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis. “Anyone promising quick successes today has not understood the complexity of the situation or is deliberately concealing it,” he said.

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Anyone promising quick successes today has not understood the complexity of the situation or is deliberately concealing it.

Geisel said “new brooms sweep clean” in explaining his decision to leave. He described serving Berlin as an honor and said it was democratically right to encourage a change in personnel. He is looking for professional opportunities and plans to remain involved with the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund and several foundations.

Harald Laatsch, 69, has represented the Alternative for Germany in parliament since 2016. He said parliamentary work was interesting, but that building the party internally fascinated him more. Laatsch joined the AfD when it was founded in 2013 and served, among other roles, as deputy head of its Berlin branch. The source text ends during his explanation of why he did not seek re-election.

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New brooms sweep clean.