Rainer Michael Müller (born 9 December 1964) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD) who served as

Governing Mayor of Berlin The governing mayor () of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent states of Germany (), the office is the equivalent of the ministers president of ...

from 2014 to 2021. He has served as a member of the German

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 ...

since the 2021 elections, representing the Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district. He was also President of the Bundesrat from November 2017 until October 2018, which made him deputy to 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 ...

Political career

State politics

Müller was elected to the Berlin House of Representatives in 1996 and has been a member ever since. On 16 June 2001, he took over leadership of the SPD Group in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from Klaus Wowereit who had been elected Governing Mayor of Berlin. After the resignation of Peter Strieder in April 2004, Müller ran for the Berlin SPD State Party Leadership and won, remaining the Leader of Berlin SPD until he lost his re-election bid against Jan Stöß in June 2012. Following the 2011 state elections in Berlin, Müller was senator for urban development and the environment from 1 December 2011 to 11 December 2014. One of his most extensive projects, which planned to build business space and apartments on the grounds of the former Tempelhof Airport, was rejected in 2014 by a clear majority of Berlin citizens in a referendum.

Mayor of Berlin, 2014–2021

In December 2014, Müller took over in midterm from the incumbent Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's longest-serving mayor since reunification in 1990,Patrick Donahue
"Berlin Mayor Mueller Sworn In, Ending Wowereit's 13-Year Run"
''

Bloomberg Business ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', 11 December 2014. who presided over the city's emergence as a popular tourist destination and center for high-tech start-ups but stepped down after his popularity suffered from the debacle around the

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 ...

. Müller had previously made a surprise entry into the race to succeed Wowereit and defeated two candidates initially seen as the most likely successors. Shortly before the election, Müller ran for the Leadership of the Social Democratic Party in Berlin a second time, and won. In the 2016 Berlin Election, he led the party to victory, albeit not without some losses. After the election, Müller ended the grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and formed a new government with the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the left-wing

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Müller served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Cultural Affairs from 2014. Müller was an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the

in 2004, 2009 and 2012. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

under the leadership of

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

following the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on urban development, led by Bernd Althusmann, Kurt Gribl and Natascha Kohnen.

Member of the German Parliament, 2021–present

In August 2020, Müller announced his intention to leave state politics and instead run as a candidate in the 2021 national elections. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

of the SPD, the

and the Free Democrats (FDP) on the national level following the elections, he was part of his party's delegation in the working group on innovation and research, co-chaired by Thomas Losse-Müller,

Katharina Fegebank Katharina Fegebank (born 27 February 1977) is a German politician for the Alliance '90/The Greens, who has served as Second Mayor of Hamburg since 2015. She has been serving as Senator for the Environment, Climate Action, Energy and Agricultu ...

and Lydia Hüskens. In parliament, Müller has been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs (since 2021) and its Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy (since 2022). He has also been chairing a study commission set up to investigate the entire period of German involvement in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and to draw lessons for foreign and security policy in future. In addition to his committee assignments, Müller chairs the German-Japanese Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH, commonly abbreviated FBB, is a German airport operator. It operates Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) and previously operated Berlin Tegel Airport, Tegel and Berlin Schön ...

, chairman of the supervisory board

Non-profit organizations

* Tarabya Cultural Academy, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2022) * Friends of the Fraekelufer Synagogue, member of the board of trustees (since 2018) * Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, member of the political advisory board (since 2018) * Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study, ''ex-officio'' chair of the board of trustees *

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

, member of the board of trustees *

Natural History Museum, Berlin The Natural History Museum () is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major museums in Germany alongside Natur ...

, 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 (2018–2019)2018-2019 "Board of Trustees"

. * Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, ''ex-officio'' chairman of the board of trustees (–2021) * Topography of Terror Foundation, chairman * Development and Peace Foundation (SEF), deputy chairman of the board of trustees * Association of German Cities, ''ex-officio'' member of the Presidium * American Academy in Berlin, honorary trustee * Aspen Institute Berlin, member of the board of trustees * Cultural Foundation of the German States (KdL), ''ex-officio'' member of the council * Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKB), member of the board of trustees (–2021) *

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

, member of the board of trustees (–2021) * Council for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Berlin, member of the board of trustees (–2021) * Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, member of the board of trustees (–2021)

References

External links

CV on the website of Berlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Michael 1964 births Living people Presidents of the German Bundesrat Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Mayors of Berlin Senators of Berlin Members of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin People from Tempelhof-Schöneberg Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025