Bavaria holds public farewell for Hubert Aiwanger

Bavaria will hold a memorial service and state funeral for Hubert Aiwanger in Munich on Saturday, with some church seats available to people without invitations, BR reports. The Free Voters party is also arranging buses to the city from several parts of the state.

About one-third of the roughly 2,000 seats in the Frauenkirche are expected to be open without reservations, said Hans Martin Grötsch, the party’s secretary-general. He said Aiwanger had preferred to be among ordinary citizens. The party cautioned that, given the expected turnout, it cannot guarantee everyone a place inside.

The Frauenkirche will open at 9.30am, with the ceremonies beginning at 10.30am. Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich will lead a solemn Catholic requiem. The service will include music by the Munich Cathedral Music vocal ensemble and orchestra, as well as soprano Katja Stuber, under the direction of cathedral music director Lucia Hilz. Excerpts from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor are scheduled.

A state funeral, hosted by Minister-President Markus Söder, is due to begin in the church at noon. The coffin and mourners are expected to leave at about 12.30pm for a farewell on Cathedral Square. Söder will then host a reception at the Residenz.

BR will broadcast the requiem and state funeral live on television and BR24.de from 10.30am to 1pm.

Aiwanger’s partner, Tanja Schweiger, a district administrator in Regensburg, said on social media that he would be buried “at home.” The time and place have not been announced. Aiwanger lived in Rahstorf, a district of the Lower Bavarian town of Rottenburg an der Laaber. Söder has ordered flags to be flown at half-mast at all state buildings on the day of the burial and asked local authorities and public institutions to do the same.

Aiwanger, Bavaria’s deputy minister-president and economy minister, and the Free Voters’ state and federal leader, died unexpectedly last Wednesday at the age of 55. He had been in Berlin for the opening of the party’s headquarters but cancelled his attendance at short notice for health reasons. He was found lifeless in his hotel room that evening. A preliminary autopsy found no indication of third-party involvement, according to the report.

Bavaria holds state funerals for only a small number of prominent figures. Such ceremonies honour the deceased in the presence of senior state representatives, family members and colleagues. Previous state funerals included those for former state parliament presidents Alois Glück in Munich in 2024 and Barbara Stamm in Würzburg in 2022.