Fritz Schramma

Fritz Schramma was born in Cologne on 27 August 1947. He went to the Dreikönigsgymnasium, one of the city's oldest grammar schools, and then studied Latin, philosophy and education at the University of Cologne.

From 1972 to 1988 he worked as a trainee and then a qualified teacher at grammar schools in Cologne-Rodenkirchen, Wesel and Hürth, where he taught at the Ernst-Mach-Gymnasium. From 1988 until 2000 he was a senior teacher (Studiendirektor) at the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Pulheim, teaching Latin and philosophy.

Schramma joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1976 and was elected to Cologne city council in 1989. In October 1999 he became first Bürgermeister, the honorary first deputy to the mayor, Harry Blum. When Blum died unexpectedly in March 2000, Schramma took over the mayor's duties jointly with the city director Bernhard Wimmer.

In the early election that followed he won 47.3 per cent in the first round and beat the Social Democrat Anke Brunn with 52.3 per cent in the runoff on 17 September 2000. The Cologne SPD had been weakened by a share dealing scandal involving its former candidate, and the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger called him the mayor by chance. Because he completed Blum's term and then served a full five year term of his own, he held office for nine years.

The city of Cologne credited his time in office with the renovation of Cologne's schools, the expansion of all-day schooling and childcare for under threes, the redevelopment of the Rheinauhafen, growth in the creative and media industries, the new football stadium, the redesign of the square in front of the main station and bringing matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup to the city. He also launched the KölnEngagiert volunteering award.

He acted as a mediator in the long running dispute over the Central Mosque planned by DITIB in Ehrenfeld and approved the building of what became Germany's largest mosque. In 2008 he received the first Genç Prize for peaceful coexistence, and in 2009 the Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi Peace Prize.

His final year was overshadowed by the collapse of the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne on 3 March 2009. He was sharply criticised for his handling of the crisis and on 29 March announced that he would not seek re-election. He was also criticised over the contract for the new Cologne trade fair halls, which the European Court of Justice later ruled had breached procurement rules. His term ended on 20 October 2009.

After leaving office he stayed active in Cologne's civic and carnival life, and in October 2025 he and his whole family left the CDU after almost 50 years, citing the party's lack of open debate and his health.

Schramma was married to Ulla Schramma, and they had a son and a daughter. On 31 March 2001 their son was fatally injured as an uninvolved pedestrian near Rudolfplatz in central Cologne, in a crash caused by an illegal street race.

In 2002 Fritz and Ulla Schramma founded the Kölner Opferhilfe, an association that supports victims of crime and accidents, and in 2024 they were jointly awarded the Rheinlandtaler of the Rhineland regional authority for that work. He was an honorary member of the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee and a member of the Rote Funken carnival corps. In 2002 he recorded an audiobook of Cologne legends.

Schramma made his cancer diagnosis public in November 2025. He died on Monday 17 August 2026, aged 78, in the Mildred Scheel House palliative care unit of Cologne University Hospital. The city of Cologne announced his death the following day, saying he had died after a serious illness.

Mayor Torsten Burmester ordered flags on city buildings to fly at half mast, and condolence books were opened in the Historic City Hall. Schramma was buried at the Westfriedhof in Cologne-Vogelsang on 27 August 2026, what would have been his 79th birthday, after a funeral service in the cemetery chapel. A civic memorial followed in the Historic City Hall, where Burmester described him as the ultimate Cologne insider, always out and about and open to everyone.

Schramma is remembered in Cologne as a mayor who was constantly among the people of his city, as a teacher who made schools and childcare a priority, and as a politician who stood up for integration and religious tolerance during the bitter debate over the Central Mosque. The University of Cologne and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences made him an honorary senator. Since 2024 the Cologne cookery society has awarded a Fritz Schramma Prize, whose winners donate the money to a cause of their choice. The archive collapse of 2009 remains the most contested part of his record.