The long-standing member of the Bundestag and CDU politician Gero Storjohann is dead. He died at the age of 64 on Sunday after a long intensive medical treatment as a result of a serious illness, as his office announced. On February 12, the parliamentarian would have been 65 years old.
Storjohann leaves behind a wife and three adult sons. “We mourn with his wife Maren Storjohann and their 3 sons Philipp, Alexander and Ferdinand,” his team wrote on Twitter.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz also wrote on Twitter: “After a long and serious illness, our colleague and friend Gero Storjohann passed away today. We mourn with his family and friends. We will keep him in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in honorable memory. My Thoughts are with his family.”
“We are all very sad. Gero Storjohann was still receiving intensive medical care and died surrounded by his family,” said Ole Christopher Plambeck, member of the state parliament, who took over the position of CDU district chairman from Storjohann in 2021, according to “Lübecker Nachrichten”. Storjohann held this post for the previous 24 years.
Storjohann has sat in the Bundestag since 2002 and represented the constituency of Segeberg – Stormarn Mitte.
At the age of 18 he joined the Junge Union in 1975, and a few years later the CDU. In 1994 he then moved into the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein, where he became spokesman for housing policy for the CDU parliamentary group.
In the Bundestag he worked to improve the transport infrastructure in Schleswig-Holstein and, as a passionate cyclist, campaigned for road safety and the promotion of cycling. He was also active in the petitions committee, which made him a member of the board of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
“During his almost 20-year tenure as a member of the Bundestag, it was a real concern for him to fill the constitutionally guaranteed right of petition with life and to devote himself to the concerns of the citizens with seriousness,” writes his office.
In addition, Strojohann has been chairman of the German-Austrian parliamentary group since 2018.
There has been speculation about Storjohann’s state of health in recent months, as the “Lübecker Nachrichten” writes. Accordingly, it was known that he had been in intensive care treatment since April 2022. It was not initially known what illness Storjohann had.
After his death, the next person on the CDU state list for his seat in the Bundestag moves up. This would be Melanie Bernstein, according to the “Lübecker Nachrichten”.
Sources: Office Gero Storjohann, German Bundestag, Twitter, “Lübecker Nachrichten”, “Hamburger Abendblatt”
