FORMER MAYOR OF CITY OF OLDENBURG
Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Schwandner was the directly elected Mayor of the city of Oldenburg in northwest Germany (2006 – 2014).
He originally studied Medicine, Education, German Philology and Art History at the Universities of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf. He obtained his MedD in 1977 and worked as surgeon at the University Hospital Heidelberg and the City Hospital of Pforzheim/Germany.
In 1984, he was elected into the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg and became State Councillor at the Bremen Senator for Culture and Integration (1992-1995). In 1995, he was appointed Managing Director of the Center for Arts and Media Technology in Karlsruhe and later obtained a professorship for Management and Marketing Strategies at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences.
Since his election as Mayor, he has been instrumental in strengthening cross-border cooperation with the city of Groningen / Netherlands as well business, cultural and academic ties between Chinese and European cities. He has also been active within in the framework of the European Union’s strategic urbanization partnership with the PRC.