Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger found dead in a Berlin hotel

Found dead in a hotel

Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister of the state, and leader of the Free Voters party (Freie Wähler), Hubert Aiwanger, has been found dead in one of Berlin's hotels. The Bild newspaper was the first to report this citing sources in the Bavarian government and the capital's police; the information was also confirmed by Welt and Deutsche Welle. The politician was 55 years old.

What is known about his final hours

According to Bild, on Wednesday Aiwanger was supposed to attend the opening of the new Berlin office of the Free Voters, but did not show up at the event: he complained of feeling unwell and stayed at the Neuer Fritz hotel in central Berlin, where he was later found without signs of life. Gazeta.Ru, citing party circles, adds that the minister had an interview scheduled for Wednesday morning, which he canceled due to feeling unwell, and later he could not be reached.

Cause of death and circumstances

No official cause of death was given at the time of the first reports. Der Tagesspiegel, citing police circles, reported that no signs of external interference or violent death were found, and the cause was apparently health-related. The circumstances of the incident remain unclear; official details and information about further actions by law enforcement have not yet been published.

Who is Hubert Aiwanger

Aiwanger led the Free Voters in Bavaria from 2006, and the federal party from 2010. From 2008 he was a member of the Bavarian Landtag, and after the 2018 elections he took the posts of Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Markus Söder (CSU), with whom his party formed the ruling coalition in the state.