Peter Tschentscher

Peter Tschentscher (born 20 January 1966) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Since 28 March 2018 he has been the First Mayor of Hamburg and head of the new state government. Since 2008 he has been a member of the Hamburger Bürgerschaft, the state parliament of Hamburg. From 2011 until 2018 he served as State Minister of Finance of the city in the Senate's Scholz I and II.

Peter Tschentscher
First Mayor of Hamburg
Assumed office
28 March 2018
DeputyKatharina Fegebank
Preceded byKatharina Fegebank (Acting)
Senator for Finance of Hamburg
In office
7 March 2011 – 28 March 2018
MayorOlaf Scholz
Preceded byHerlind Gundelach
Succeeded byAndreas Dressel
Personal details
Born (1966-01-20) 20 January 1966
Bremen, West Germany (now Germany)
Political partySocial Democratic Party
Alma materUniversity of Hamburg

Early life and education

Tschentscher graduated from high school in Oldenburg in 1985. He later studied medicine and molecular biology at the University of Hamburg, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1995. From 1994 until 2008 he practised as a physician at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

Political career
Official portrait

Tschentscher joined the Social Democratic Party in 1989. He was first elected to the Hamburgische Bürgerschaft in the 2008 state elections. From 2008 until 2011 he served on the Budget Committee. In addition, he led a parliamentary inquiry into cost overruns in the construction of the Elbphilharmonie from 2010.

Finance Senator, 2011–2018

During his tenure as State Minister of Finance Tschentscher oversaw the privatization of the publicly owned shipping finance provider HSH Nordbank.[1]

From 2015 on, Tschentscher was one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, where he served as deputy chairman of the finance committee.

First mayor of Hamburg, 2018–present

In March 2018 Tschentscher succeeded Olaf Scholz, who left state politics to become Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the fourth coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.[2]

At the time of his nomination, Tschentscher was seen as a surprising choice by many, as he has not appeared much in the public during his term as Senator of Finance. Andreas Dressel, SPD parliamentary group leader in Hamburg, had been considered by many as obvious successor of Scholz,[2] but declined for personal reasons.[3]

As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Tschentscher is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and on the Committee on European Affairs. During his first year as mayor, he also served as Commissioner of the Federal Republic of Germany for Cultural Affairs under the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation.

Other activities
  • Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2020)[4]
  • HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, ex officio chairman of the supervisory board (since 2018)
  • Stability Council, ex officio member[5]

References
  1. Vera Eckert and Olaf Brenner (April 2, 2017), Public owners of HSH Nordbank say pleased with first bidding round Reuters.
  2. Peter Tschentscher soll Nachfolger von Olaf Scholz in Hamburg werden, Der Spiegel
  3. Jana Werner (March 11, 2018), Neuer Bürgermeister „Ich habe eine eigene Amtsführung“ Die Welt.
  4. Bernd Westphal und Anke Rehlinger koordinieren neu konstituierten Politischen Beirat des SPD-Wirtschaftsforums Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, press release of July 1, 2020.
  5. Chair and Members Archived 2017-07-09 at the Wayback Machine Stability Council.
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