Bavarian deputy leader Hubert Aiwanger found dead in Berlin hotel

Hubert Aiwanger, deputy leader of Germany's Bavaria state and the state's economy minister, has been found dead in a hotel room in Berlin. Police said the discovery was made on Wednesday. He was 55 years old.

Police said in a statement that he was found dead in his hotel room in the Berlin-Mitte district. The cause of his death was not immediately clear, police said.

Police and prosecutors have opened an investigation to determine the specific cause and circumstances of death. In their statement, police and prosecutors said the aim of the inquest is to establish the specific cause of death and the circumstances surrounding it, and to rule out any possible third-party culpability. They gave no further details.

Aiwanger was in Berlin to attend the opening of an office for his party, the German daily Bild reported. According to Bild, he missed the event as he was feeling unwell. His body was later discovered by police in the hotel, the newspaper said.

Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder described Aiwanger's death as an "absolute tragedy". He said: "We are all deeply shocked. Our thoughts are now first and foremost with his family and his children."

Aiwanger was head of the populist Free Voters party. His party were junior partners in the regional Bavarian government led by Soeder's Christian Social Union (CSU).

He had headed the Bavarian branch of the Free Voters since 2006. Under his leadership, the party made it into the state government for the first time in 2018. However, it never won enough seats to qualify for Germany's federal parliament.

In 2023, Aiwanger faced national controversy after reports emerged that he wrote an antisemitic pamphlet as a 17-year-old schoolboy, in which Auschwitz was described as an "entertainment quarter".

Aiwanger denied having written the pamphlet, though he admitted to having had "one or a few copies" of it in his school bag. He apologised over the affair but refused to step down.

German media reported that Aiwanger had two children and lived with his partner.