_der_B%25C3%25BCrgerschaft_der_Freien_und_Hansestadt_Hamburg_Michael_Kruse_by_Stepro_IMG_9179.jpg)
Michael Kruse (born 30 December 1983) is a German politician (FDP). From March 2015 to March 2020, Kruse was a member of theHamburg Parliament. He has been the state chairman of theHamburg FDP since 25 April 2021.[1]
Kruse was born and raised in Hamburg. After graduating from theJohannes-Brahms-Gymnasium in Hamburg-Bramfeld, he studiedMacroeconomics at theUniversity of Hamburg from 2003 to 2008 and at theUniversity of Liverpool from 2005 to 2006.
After graduating with a bachelor in economics, Kruse worked as an independentbusiness consultant in Hamburg andBerlin until 2011. Since his election to the Hamburg Parliament in March 2015 he has been pursuing this activity again and has since also worked as commercial director of theHeidelberg-based consulting firm Cogitars GmbH.[2] Kruse is single and has no children.
Kruse has been a member of the FDP since 2007. From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the federal executive committee of theYoung Liberals (Germany). From 2011 to 2015, Kruse was parliamentary party director of the FDP parliamentary group in the Hamburg Parliament.
In the2015 Hamburg state election, Kruse was elected to the Hamburg parliament at party-list position 3 on the state list of the FDP Hamburg. HisElectoral district as a member ofLandtag includes the districts ofBarmbek-Nord,Barmbek-Süd,Dulsberg,Hohenfelde, Hamburg andUhlenhorst. He was a member of the parliamentary group's executive committee asChief Whip of the FDP parliamentary group[3] and was the politico-economic spokesman of the parliamentary group. His topics were in particular the classicalEconomic policy such as port,[4] skilled crafts and trade[5] and industry as well as the strengthening of Hamburg's start-up scene.[6] In addition, he was responsible for the area of public enterprises. Kruse was a member of the following committees: Committee for Economy, Innovation and Media, Committee Public Enterprises, Committee for Environment and Energy, Health Committee, Data Protection Committee and Europe Committee. He was also a member of theCouncil of Elders of the Bundestag of the Hamburg Parliament.
Following the previous parliamentary group leaderKatja Suding's election to theBundestag in the2017 German federal election, Kruse was elected chairman of the Bürgerschaftsfraktion together with the previous deputy parliamentary group leader Anna-Elisabeth von Treuenfels-Frowein.[7]
After the FDP failed to clear the five-percent hurdle in the2020 Hamburg state election,[8] the FDP's parliamentary group disbanded and Kruse had to resign from parliament.
On 24 April 2021 Kruse was elected as the top candidate of the Hamburg FDP for the 2021 German federal election.[9] The following day, he was also elected as the new state chairman of the Elbe Liberals, succeeding Katja Suding.[10]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), theGreen Party and the FDP following the2021 German elections, Kruse was part of his party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired byCarsten Schneider,Cem Özdemir andMichael Theurer.[11]
In parliament, Kruse was a full member of the Transport Committee, as well as the Committee on Climate Protection and Energy.[12][13] In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In November 2024, Kruse announced that he would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[14]
