Open and incisive – Alumni Talk with Mayor Dr Andreas Bovenschulte

Senate meeting in the morning, Alumni Talk in the evening – it was a full programme on 20 September for Dr Andreas Bovenschulte, President of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Which led us right to: What does the mayor's everyday working life look like? In the one-hour online discussion, our prominent alumnus gave remarkably open insights into how he manages to stay authentic in his extremely demanding job. And how his not-so-linear educational and career path as a lawyer created the essential mix that he still draws from as a politician today.

"You learn that legal doctrine is also a form of structured thinking and ordering of facts and circumstances," says Bovenschulte. "If you do this for years, you gain the ability to grasp large amounts of text and large mountains of files. In my political work, this has been extremely helpful." But getting there took 12 long years of study, a doctorate, a clerkship and the second state examination in 1999. "The doctorate was probably my lowest point," Bovenschulte reported. "Because, like so many doctoral students, between fear of failure, fantasies of omnipotence and claims to explain the world, I was in danger of failing." But in the end, Bovenschulte succeeded in mastering his exams and doctorate and then started working in the civil service. First as a legal adviser then as an authorised officer at bremen online services, where he managed IT and e-government projects. "I've never programmed a single line of code, so it seems strange at first that I had responsibility in that area. But in the public sector, it's also very much about legal issues."

Bovenschulte then spent another twelve years in the municipal administration of Weyhe, just outside Bremen, the last five years as mayor. He has held the same position in the Hanseatic City of Bremen since August 2019. Does he have any private life left? Barely. "I work 12-14 hours a day from Monday to Friday, on Saturdays I also have a full schedule, on Sundays I ‘only’ have 1 or 2 appointments. One of the hardest things is to organise time, to take in substantive input, beyond the flow of documents and day-to-day political updates." One result of these reflections recently made its way into his speech welcoming the new university rector, Professor Jutta Günther: without the University of Bremen, the state of Bremen would have lost its independence long ago. "That sounds like quite a stretch," Bovenschulte said in the Alumni Talk, "but essentially, I think it's correct."

The Alumni Talk is available for viewing on our YouTube channel (only in German).