Daniel Zimmermann became one of Germany’s youngest mayors at the age of 27. He interviewed with Deutschland.de on July 3 and spoke of his work running a city:
“How do you imagine your city in ten years time? How will you want to live then? These are the kind of questions I like to ask the citizens of Monheim-am-Rhein. As the mayor, I want to be in close contact with the people.
I originally wanted to become a teacher. I had already completed my teacher’s training when I ran for mayor. Our PETO party, which I founded at the age of 16 together with some classmates, was successful amazingly quickly. We were voted into the city council first time round. I won the mayoral election in 2009. At that time I was the youngest mayor in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia aged 27.
What drove me was not the prospect of a political career but a great desire to develop Monheim. From the beginning, I had the feeling I was in the right place in this position.”
Read the full interview on Deutschland.de.