German politician found dead in Berlin hotel

BERLIN: A prominent German politician was found dead in a Berlin hotel on Wednesday, police said, adding that they had launched an investigation.

The cause of death of Hubert Aiwanger, 55, deputy leader of the southern German state of Bavaria, was not immediately clear.

Police in the capital said in a statement that he was "found dead in his hotel room" in the Berlin-Mitte district.

Police and prosecutors had opened a probe to "determine the specific cause and circumstances of death and to rule out any possible involvement of third parties", the statement said.

Aiwanger, head of the populist Free Voters party and Bavarian economy minister, was in Berlin to attend the opening of an office for his party but missed the event because he was feeling unwell, the Bild daily reported.

His body was later discovered by police at the hotel, it said.

Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder described his death as an "absolute tragedy".

"We are all deeply shocked. Our thoughts are now first and foremost with his family and his children," he said.

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Aiwanger's party was a junior partner 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 entered the state government for the first time in 2018.

He faced national controversy in 2023 after it emerged that Nazi pamphlets had been found in his schoolbag as a teenager in the late 1980s.

He apologised over the affair but refused to step down.

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