Berlin, November 5th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Hubert Aiwanger, Bavaria’s economics minister and deputy minister-president, has died at the age of 55. The chairman of the Freie Wähler party was found in a room at the Hotel Neuer Fritz near Friedrichstrasse station in Berlin’s Mitte district. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office confirmed the news on Wednesday evening.
According to prosecutors, he was discovered in the early evening. A spokesman said that the exact circumstances of the discovery could not be disclosed for now because of investigative tactics. Prosecutors and the homicide unit of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office have opened an investigation. Its purpose is to determine the cause and course of the death and to rule out a crime. Forensic teams are working at the hotel, and witnesses may be questioned. An autopsy is expected to be ordered.
Aiwanger had been scheduled to speak on Wednesday afternoon at the opening of a Freie Wähler office in the capital. According to German-language dailies, he canceled for health reasons. Later he could no longer be reached.
Gotthardt to Take Over
The Freie Wähler now need a new leader at both the state and federal level. Aiwanger had been reelected as Bavarian chairman a year ago. He planned to seek another term as federal chairman at a party convention on November 14th. Whether that date will hold is unclear. The party said overnight that the Freie Wähler in Bavaria would continue their work in Aiwanger’s spirit.
In the Bavarian Economics Ministry, State Secretary Tobias Gotthardt of the Freie Wähler will take over the day-to-day business at least temporarily. This is what the cabinet’s rules of procedure provide for. The ministry said Gotthardt would cut short a delegation trip to Singapore and return to Bavaria. It remains to be seen whether and when the Freie Wähler will fill the ministerial post permanently.
Reactions came from across the political spectrum. Minister President (governor) Markus Söder of the CSU, whose party governs Bavaria in coalition with the Freie Wähler, wrote on X that Aiwanger’s death was “an absolute tragedy”, adding that his thoughts were with the politician’s family and children. The President or the Bavarian parliament, Ilse Aigner of the CSU, called it a heavy loss for the state parliament and for politics in Bavaria as a whole.
Farmer’s Son
Aiwanger grew up on a farm near Rottenburg an der Laaber in Lower Bavaria and trained as an agricultural engineer. He bred pigs successfully before joining the Freie Wähler ahead of the 2002 local elections. He never hid his rural roots. In clashes with the Greens in particular, he liked to present himself as a countryman misunderstood by urban elites. He once described taking part in government as a necessary evil and said that, without politics, he might simply be planting trees and tending to pigs.
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Few figures in Bavarian politics were as recognizable. His broad Lower Bavarian dialect made him a favorite of caricaturists, and he spoke in beer tents, at party conventions and in the state parliament almost always without notes, at the price of the occasional repetition. Even political opponents acknowledged his feel for the concerns of ordinary people. His stamina was equally noted. He kept pushing his issues even when the Landtag laughed or groaned during his years in opposition.
Critics considered him politically gifted but also a talented populist. Some within his own party accused him at times of an ego-driven leadership style, yet he was never seriously challenged as chairman. His relationship with Söder was that of a coalition partner and a rival. When the Freie Wähler won district administrator posts from the CSU in the spring, Aiwanger once again left the field as the perceived winner.
Major crisis
Aiwanger led the Freie Wähler in Bavaria since 2006 and nationwide since 2010. In 2008, the party entered the Bavarian state parliament for the first time with him as its parliamentary leader. A decade later, in 2018, the CSU and the Free Voters formed their first coalition, and Aiwanger became economics minister and deputy head of government.
The late summer of 2023 was a turning point. Only weeks before the state election, an antisemitic leaflet from his school days resurfaced. It had been found in his possession back then. The coalition with the CSU was close to collapse and Aiwanger faced the threat of dismissal. Yet the Freie Wähler achieved a record result of 15.8 percent in the election.
One major goal remained out of reach for him, which was getting his party into the Berlin Bundestag. Aiwanger had two children and lived with Tanja Schweiger, the Frei Wähler district administrator of Regensburg.
