Karl-Heinz Brunner (born 14 March 1953) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany 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 w ...

(SPD). He was elected a member of the German parliament (

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

) in the federal election of 2013 until October 2021.

Life

Brunner was born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. After finishing school, he studied business administration, law administration, and management in

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

, Munich,

Starnberg Starnberg is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, some southwest of Munich. It is at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the "Five Lakes Country", and serves as capital of the Starnberg (district), district of Starnberg. Recor ...

and

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

. He worked as a legal counselor from 2005 – 2013 and as an executive shareholder of the Illertisser Sonnenschein GmbH & Co. KG. He is a coeditor of the political magazine “Berliner Republik” and serves as chairman of the “Freundeskreis Illertissen – Loket”. He is an honorary member of the

Bavarian Red Cross The German Red Cross (GRC) ( ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. During the Nazi era, the German Red Cross was under the control of the Nazi Party and played a role in supporting the regime's policies, including the exclusion o ...

since 1970 and the Workers’ Welfare Organisation. Brunner is married and has two adult children. Since 2011 he is a lecturer for “Public Private Partnerships” at the University of Applied Sciences Biberach. In September 2020, Brunner

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. According to him, he and his partner have been living in Berlin since 2019 despite Brunner still being married to his wife.

Political career

Brunner joined the SPD in 1982. He is engaged with local politics since 1985. He was mayor of Illertissen from 1990 to 2002 and is a member of the county counsel of Neu-Ulm since 1996. He ran for the constituency seat of

Neu-Ulm Neu-Ulm (, ; Swabian: ''Nej-Ulm'') is the seat of the Neu-Ulm district and a town in Swabia, Bavaria. Neighbouring towns include Ulm, Senden, Pfaffenhofen an der Roth, Holzheim, Nersingen and Elchingen. The population is 58,978 (31 Decembe ...

/ Günzburg in 2009 and 2013. In 2013 he obtained a seat via the Bavarian SPD party list.

Member of the German Bundestag, 2013–present

Brunner has been a Member of the German

since the 2013 federal elections. He has since been serving on the Defence Committee, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, as well as an on the Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. On the Defence Committee, Brunner serves as the

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

of his parliamentary group for the

German Air Force The German Air Force (, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Ger ...

. In his capacity as member of the committee, he has traveled extensively to visit

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

troops on their missions abroad, including the

Resolute Support Mission Resolute Support Mission (RSM) or Operation Resolute Support was a NATO-led multinational mission in Afghanistan. It began on 1 January 2015 as the successor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was completed on 28 Dece ...

forces at

Camp Marmal Camp Marmal was an installation of the Afghan Armed Forces. It was adjacent to Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi International Airport in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains. The camp was opened in September 2005. The c ...

Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

(2018). He is also spokesman for defense of the Bundestag group of the SPD parliamentarians from Bavaria. On the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, Brunner is his parliamentary group's rapporteur for bankruptcy law and

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

rights. In addition to his committee assignments, he serves as vice-chairman of the German-Austrian Parliamentary Friendship Group. Within his parliamentary group, Brunner belongs to the more centrist Seeheim Circle. He is also a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

and the

Czech Social Democratic Party Social Democracy (, SOCDEM), known as the Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) until 10 June 2023, is a social democratic political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on the centre-left of the political spectrum and holding pro-European ...

. As a member of 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 ...

, Brunner joined the election observation mission for the 25 May 2014 early presidential election in Ukraine during the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

. While in Ukraine, he also met with representatives of the local LGBT community. In the 2019 SPD leadership election, Brunner qualified as one of the candidates for the position of the party’s chairman, but withdrew from the election on September 16 because he wanted to enable a clearer electoral decision for his fellow party members. Though Brunner had previously said he would not be running for a seat in the Bundestag for a third time, he announced that he will do so for the

2021 German federal election The 2021 German federal election was held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, ...

Other activities

* Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2019) * Deutsche Härtefallstiftung, Member of the Board of Trustees * German Military Reserve Association, Vice-President *

(ČSSD), Member *

(SPÖ), Member * German Association for Prevention of Road Accidents (DVW), Member * Society for German Shepherd Dogs, Member

References

External links

homepage of Karl-Heinz Brunner ''in German''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunner, Karl 1953 births German gay politicians LGBTQ members of the Bundestag 20th-century German LGBTQ people 21st-century German LGBTQ people Living people Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Politicians from Munich