Michael Müller

Rainer Michael Müller (born 9 December 1964) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as Governing Mayor of Berlin from 2014 to 2021. He served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2021 to 2025, 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.

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 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, 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.

Müller had previously made a surprise entry into the race to succeed Wowereit and defeated two candidates initially seen as the most likely successors. In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party 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 and Lydia Hüskens.

In parliament, Müller served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs (2021–2025) and its Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy (2022–2025). He also chaired 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 chaired the German-Japanese Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Other activities Corporate boards Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH, 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, member of the board of trustees Natural History Museum, Berlin, member of the board of trustees Technische Universität Berlin, member of the board of trustees (2018–2019) 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, 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)