Meet Germany's 16 state leaders

Born in 1972, Boris Rhein took over as state premier when long-serving Volker Bouffier stepped down in 2022. He continued in a coalition with the Green Party, until his reelection in October 2023, after which he opted to team up with the SPD instead. Rhein advocates tough anti-terrorism surveillance measures, restrictions on immigration and expanding the protection of police officers.

Born in 1975, Wüst is a lawyer who hails from the small town of Rhede, near Münster. The former state-level transport minister was promoted to the top job in the state in 2021, won reelection in 2022, and has since been heading a coalition with the Greens in Germany's most populous state. He has been tipped as a future candidate for chancellor.

Born in 1973, Günther studied political science and psychology in Germany's sparsely populated far north. The popular and jovial politician is married to a pediatrician with whom he has two daughters. He was reelected with a resounding success in 2022 and chose the Greens over the Free Democrats as his coalition partner.

Winfried Kretschmann is a former school teacher and Germany's oldest state premier. Born in 1948, he has been heading a coalition with the center-right Christian Democrat CDU since 2018. His wealthy southwestern state is the third most populous, with just over 11 million inhabitants. Kretschmann belongs to the conservative wing of his party.

Born in 1967, Markus Söder has headed the government of Germany's biggest state since 2011, currently in a coalition with the populist Free Voters. Social media savvy Söder is known for headline-grabbing controversial statements. The staunch conservative has lashed out at wokeness and vegetarians, promoted a headscarf ban and immigration restrictions.

Born in 1958, Stephan Weil became state premier in 2013. Since he won reelection in 2022, Weil has been heading a coalition with the Greens, rather than his previous partner, the conservative CDU. Lower Saxony has 8 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest state in terms of area; it boasts a long North Sea coastline and is a major wind energy producer.

Born in 1961, Dreyer has been heading the government of her state since 2013. She governs in coalition with the Green Party and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP). Her party's election victory in the 2022 poll has been put down to her high approval ratings.

Born in 1975, the economist hails from the former East Germany and has been in power since 2017. His southeastern state with a population of four million shows strong support for the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), so Kretschmer has teamed up with the Greens and the Social Democrats. But even that alliance may lose its majority after Saxony's state election in 2024.

Born in 1961, Woidke grew up in a rural district in East Germany. The agricultural scientist and devout Protestant has been leading the government of the state that encircles Berlin since 2013, heading a coalition with the CDU and the Greens. Brandenburg is one of the eastern states set for reelection in 2024, and the far-right populist AfD polls as the strongest party by a large margin.

Born in West Germany in 1956, Ramelow hails from a working-class family. His education was in sales and business, and he came to eastern Germany after reunification as a trade union activist. He heads a coalition with the SPD and the Green Party, which has no majority. State elections in 2024 are expected to deal a victory to the far-right AfD under its extremist regional leader Björn Höcke.

Born in East Germany in 1954, Haseloff is a trained physicist who joined the CDU in 1976 when it was a small coalition party in the GDR government. He belongs to the Catholic minority in Germany's majority-Protestant (and atheist) northern and eastern regions. Since his reelection in 2021, he has been leading a coalition of CDU, SPD and FDP.

Born in 1974 in East Germany's Brandenburg, Manuela Schwesig has been heading a coalition with the Left Party in the sparsely-populated northeastern state since 2017. The trained tax inspector was a family affairs minister under former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Schwesig was a staunch advocate of the now-discontinued Nord Stream pipelines for natural gas deliveries from Russia.

Born in 1976, Anke Rehlinger came to power in the small western Saarland in 2022 with a resounding victory that gave her center-left Social Democrats an absolute majority. The former shot put champion holds a degree in law and administration. Saarland, which borders France, is highly industrialized and has the highest cross-border mobility of workers in the European Union.

Since 2023, Wegner has been heading a government with the SPD, whom he unseated following an election that focused on security and order. That election saw the city-state's young, center-left voters most concerned about the climate set against an older suburban generation whose main worry is criminality.

The mayor of Germany's second-largest city is a doctor and molecular biologist. He was born in 1966 in Bremen as one of four children to a timber trader. He has been heading a coalition with the Greens since 2019.

The lawyer has headed the government in the city-state of Bremen since 2019, in a coalition with the Left Party and the Greens. Germany's smallest state is traditionally one of the most left-leaning, has a low GDP and the highest unemployment rate.