| Thomas Lutze | |
| Office: | Leader of The Left in the Saarland |
| Term Start: | 29 September 2019 |
| Term End: | 11 September 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Jochen Flackus |
| Successor: | Barbara Spaniol |
| Office2: | Member of the Bundestag for Saarland |
| Term Start2: | 27 October 2009 |
| Birth Date: | 1969 8, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Elsterwerda, East Germany |
| Party: | The Left / SPD |
| Nationality: | German |
Thomas Lutze (born 23 August 1969) is a German politician who represents the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Previously, he was a member of the Left Party. Thomas Lutze has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saarland from 2009 to 2023, and has represented Berlin since October 2023.[1]
Born in Elsterwerda, Brandenburg, Lutze grew up in Leipzig. In 1986, he completed his general secondary schooling, and three years later he completed his vocational training as a mechanical engineer in a foundry in Leipzig, which was linked to his A-levels. He then worked there as a repair fitter. In 1990 and 1991, he worked as an assembly fitter at a temporary employment agency. From 1991 to 1995 he studied design and production engineering at the University of Saarland.
From 1995 to 2002, Lutze was a regional office employee of the PDS parliamentary group in Saarbrücken. From 2003 to 2005, he retrained as an office administrator in a Saarbrücken furniture store. From 2005, he was a constituency employee of Oskar Lafontaine in Saarlouis.
Lutze first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal election.[2] He is a member of the Committee for Economics and Energy.[3] In his group he is spokesman for economic policy.[4]
In March 2021, Lutze was subject of an internal controvery within his party.[5] Since September 2022 he is no longer the leader of The Left in the state of Saarland. He has been succeeded by Barbara Spaniol.[6]
In October 2023, Lutze resigned his membership from the Left Party and instead joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD), citing that "he no longer perceived the Left as a 'corrective' of socially undesirable developments". He retained his seat in the Bundestag, but was rejected from the Saarland SPD, and instead was accepted into the Berlin SPD, specifically the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain chapter.[7]
In October 2024, Lutze announced that he would not stand in the 2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[8]