Thomas Lutze | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Lutze in 2022 | |
| Leader ofThe Left in theSaarland | |
| In office 29 September 2019 – 11 September 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Jochen Flackus |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Spaniol |
| Member of theBundestag forSaarland | |
| In office 27 October 2009 – 24 March 2025 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1969-08-23)23 August 1969 (age 56) |
| Political party | The Left /SPD |
Thomas Lutze (born 23 August 1969) is a German politician who represents theSocial Democratic Party of Germany. Previously, he was a member of the Left Party. Thomas Lutze has served as a member of theBundestag from the state ofSaarland from 2009 to 2023, and has representedBerlin since October 2023.[1]
Born inElsterwerda,Brandenburg, Lutze grew up in Leipzig. In 1986, he completed his general secondary schooling, and three years later he completed his vocational training as a mechanical engineer in a foundry inLeipzig, which was linked to his A-levels. He then worked there as a repair fitter. In 1990 and 1991, he worked as an assembly fitter at a temporary employment agency. From 1991 to 1995 he studied design and production engineering at the University of Saarland.
From 1995 to 2002, Lutze was a regional office employee of the PDS parliamentary group in Saarbrücken. From 2003 to 2005, he retrained as an office administrator in a Saarbrücken furniture store. From 2005, he was a constituency employee ofOskar Lafontaine in Saarlouis.
Lutze first became a member of the Bundestag in the2009 German federal election.[2] He is a member of the Committee for Economics and Energy.[3] In his group he is a spokesman for economic policy.[4]
In March 2021, Lutze was the subject of an internal controversy within his party.[5] Since September 2022 he is no longer the leader of The Left in the state of Saarland. He has been succeeded byBarbara Spaniol.[6]
In October 2023, Lutze resigned his membership from the Left Party and instead joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD), citing that "he no longer perceived the Left as a 'corrective' of socially undesirable developments". He retained his seat in the Bundestag, but was rejected from the Saarland SPD, and instead was accepted into the Berlin SPD, specifically the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain chapter.[7]
In October 2024, Lutze announced that he would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[8]
