Thomas Lutze | |
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![]() Thomas Lutze in 2022 | |
Leader of The Left in the Saarland | |
In office 29 September 2019 –11 September 2022 | |
Preceded by | Jochen Flackus |
Succeeded by | Barbara Spaniol |
Member of the Bundestag for Saarland | |
In office 27 October 2009 – 2025 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Elsterwerda,East Germany (now Germany) | 23 August 1969
Political party | The Left / SPD |
Thomas Lutze (born 23 August 1969) is a German politician who represents the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Previously,he was a member of the Left Party. Thomas Lutze has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saarland from 2009 to 2023,and has represented Berlin since October 2023. [1]
Born in Elsterwerda,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 in Leipzig,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 of Oskar Lafontaine in Saarlouis.
Lutze first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal election. [2] He is a member of the Committee for Economics and Energy. [3] In his group he is spokesman for economic policy. [4]
In March 2021,Lutze was 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 by Barbara 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 the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. [8]