Frank Henkel (born 16 November 1963) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a Mayor and Senator of the Interior and Sports of the German state of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

from 2011 until 2016. From 2008 Henkel was the opposition leader in the Abgeordnetenhaus, the state parliament of Berlin, in which he has been an MP since 31 October 2001. In 2011 he led the CDU back into the government as the junior partner in an

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

-led

coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

.Frank Henkel - CDU Faction Berlin
/ref>

Early life and career

Henkel was born and raised in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

and attended

Polytechnic Secondary School The polytechnic secondary school, officially ''ten-class general educational polytechnic secondary school'', abbreviation POS, pronounced P-O-S, was the standard type of school in the Education in East Germany, school system of East Germany. The ...

. He began an apprenticeship after school, but in 1981 the family moved to

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, after their request for departure was granted. In West Berlin he completed vocational training as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant in 1984 and worked for two years at the

Friedrich Krupp AG Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer during both wor ...

. From 1986 to 1987 he attended technical secondary school and studied economic and social sciences at

Berlin School of Economics and Law The Berlin School of Economics and Law (German: ''Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht''), abbreviated as BSEL, is a public institution of higher education and research founded on 1 April 2009 through the merger of the Berlin School of Economic ...

afterwards. In 1994 he graduated as a

Diplom-Kaufmann A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ar ...

(German business administration degree, similar to MBA). In addition, he graduated in public relations at German Academy for Public Relations in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and in journalism at

Free University Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period as a Western continu ...

Political career

Since 1985 Henkel was a member of

Junge Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (English: Young Union of Germany) or JU is the joint youth organisation of the CDU/CSU coalition in Germany. Membership is limited to individuals between 14 and 35 years of age. The Junge Union claims to be the large ...

, since 1986 of the CDU. Between 1987 and 2005 he held various political offices in the CDU. He also worked as a speaker in the executive staff of the district mayor of

Reinickendorf Reinickendorf () is the twelfth borough of Berlin. It encompasses the northwest of the city area, including the Berlin Tegel Airport, Lake Tegel, spacious settlements of detached houses as well as housing estates like Märkisches Viertel. Subd ...

, Berlin, from 1996 to 2001. In January 2001 he became office manager of Berlin mayor

Eberhard Diepgen Eberhard Diepgen (born 13 November 1941) is a German lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of West Berlin from 1984 to 1989 and again as Mayor of (united) Berlin, from 1991 until 2001, as member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). E ...

and in June 2001 office manager of the CDU parliamentary group leader in the Abgeordnetenhaus. In October 2001 he was elected MP in Berlin. In May 2005 Henkel also was elected Secretary General of the Berlin CDU, serving under the leadership of successive chairmen Ingo Schmitt and

Joachim Zeller Joachim Zeller (1 July 1952 – March 2023) was a Polish-born German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 until 2019. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. ...

. From September 2008, he was led the opposition as chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Abgeordnetenhaus. In November 2008, he succeeded Zeller as chairman of the state CDU.

Senator of the Interior and Sports, 2011–2016

In 2011 Henkel became frontrunner in the

2011 Berlin state election The 2011 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011 to elect the members of the 17th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Left lost its majority. The SPD lost five ...

s and led the CDU back into the state government. In March 2016 he was nominated again as the leading candidate of the CDU for the

2016 Berlin state election The 2016 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2016 to elect the members to the 18th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was defeated, with ...

s. As one of Berlin's representatives at the Bundesrat, Henkel was a member of the Committee on Internal Affairs, the Defense Committee and the German delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly The NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It consists of delegates from the parliaments of the 32 NATO member countries as well as from associate ...

. In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Henkel was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs, led by

Hans-Peter Friedrich Hans-Peter Friedrich (born 10 March 1957) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2025 . Under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he served as ...

and

Thomas Oppermann Thomas Ludwig Albert Oppermann (27 April 195425 October 2020) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). From October 2017 until his death he served as Vice President of the Bundestag. In his earlier career, he serv ...

. In December 2015, Henkel presided over the CDU's 2014 national convention in Berlin. Henkel again led his party in the 2016 state elections. Ahead of the vote, he regularly polled behind his Social Democrat counterpart, incumbent Mayor Michael Müller. His party ended up falling from 23 per cent in 2011 to 17.6 per cent, its lowest result in Berlin. Henkel was a CDU delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and devise the first system of federal government under the Articles of Conf ...

for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

in 2017.

Other activities (selection)

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport () () is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the Germany, German capital and state of Berlin, in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the former Mayor of West Berlin, West Berlin mayor and Chance ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (-2016) * Olympiastadion Berlin, Member of the Supervisory Board (-2016) *

(HWR), Member of the Board of Trustees *

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees * German Forum for Crime Prevention (DFK), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (-2016)Board of Trustees
German Forum for Crime Prevention (DFK). *

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

, Member

References

External links

*
Frank Henkel
at the official website of CDU Faction Berlin {{DEFAULTSORT:Henkel, Frank 1963 births Living people Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Senators of Berlin Members of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin People from East Berlin 21st-century German politicians Berlin School of Economics and Law alumni