The SPD in the city council has a new boss: Christian Köning was elected by the parliamentary group as the new co-chairman on Monday. He is succeeding Christian Müller, who will move to the top of the new municipal housing company Münchner Wohnen. The 35-year-old Köning will lead the parliamentary group together with the previous co-leader Anne Hübner.
“We will work with all our might for a strong city that is there for the people of Munich and helps them in all situations,” said the new chairman after the election. Many people have the feeling that they can no longer afford to live and are afraid of losing their wealth. “Munich is a very successful city, reliable and future-oriented, diverse and solidarity-based – at the same time we are working to ensure that things are fairer in our city and that not only the big-headers and well-known companies benefit.”
Social balance and social cohesion have been Köning’s big issues since he joined the city council in 2020. As finance spokesman for his group, he makes it his mission to distribute the city’s resources accordingly. Köning is also party leader of the SPD in Munich and could now take on an important role in the green-red coalition in his dual role.
His colleague at the top of the parliamentary group, Anne Hübner, announced that the parliamentary group and the party would work even more closely together from now on. “I’m really looking forward to working with Christian Köning. We’re combining the work of the town hall and the party and working together to promote progressive politics for Munich,” she said. The SPD wants to show “a clearer social democratic profile” to the outside world, the parliamentary group explained in a statement. Co-chair Hübner names the topics. “Social security, affordable housing and efficient public transport – we are tackling the major challenges in our city as a team.”
Köning was considered the only promising candidate in the election
Köning’s election was expected; he was considered the only promising candidate. Within a few years he made a rapid rise in the SPD. In 2017, the Jusos elected him as their new chairman, and three years later he moved to the city council. He gave up his position in the youth organization a year later and then became head of the SPD in Munich in 2022. Here he succeeded the Bundestag member Claudia Thousand, who was no longer running.
The new parliamentary group leader Köning was born in Gräfelfing and grew up in Freimann and Trudering. He completed his high school diploma at the Michaeli-Gymnasium. He knows the city administration very well since his training as an administrative economist. Since 2011 he has worked in youth welfare, in the social community centers in Giesing and Sendling. But that wasn’t the end of his professional path. At the same time as working, Köning completed a degree in sociology. He is currently working on his dissertation, which deals with a micro-analysis of the welfare state. Köning is married and has a son, his wife Seija Knorr-Köning is also active in the SPD and ran unsuccessfully for the Bundestag mandate in the west of Munich in 2021. The family lives in Neuhausen.
As the strong man of the SPD behind Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), Köning now has the task of stabilizing the party after many electoral defeats and positioning the faction, with Anne Hübner at his side, in the coalition with the Greens so that it can win in the local elections in 2026 at least not slipping any further.
With the new election at the top of the SPD parliamentary group, the coalition is bringing an unexpectedly hot autumn to a close. It had been known for a long time that the previous SPD parliamentary group leader Müller wanted to switch to the municipal housing industry. But it was not to be expected that Köning would sit opposite an even more changed Green team at the first talks. After the completely surprising departure of the second mayor, Katrin Haben Schaden, and the replacement of the previous parliamentary group leader, Dominik Krause, in this position, Sebastian Weisenburger was elected parliamentary group leader. He will lead the Greens in the city council together with previous co-leader Mona Fuchs.
The previous term in office was marked by a lot of internal friction. It will now be up to the new quartet to hold the coalition together for the next two and a half years and to implement the desired social-ecological turnaround.