Sönke Hartlef

Sönke Hartlef was born on 4 July 1962 in Stade, Lower Saxony. From 1979 to 1982 he trained as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant (Groß- und Außenhandelskaufmann) in Stade, and from 1982 to 1984 he did his military service.

After two further jobs in Stade, Hartlef joined the building materials company Berding Beton GmbH in Buxtehude in 1992, working there as a commercial employee and dispatcher until he became mayor.

He became a member of the local council (Ortsrat) of Bützfleth in 2006 and was its local mayor from 2010 to 2019. From 2011 he also sat on the Stade city council for the CDU. In the 2019 mayoral election he reached a run-off with the SPD incumbent Silvia Nieber and won it on 16 June 2019 with 55.35 percent of the vote. He took office as full-time mayor of the Hanseatic city of Stade on 14 September 2019. Soon after, the Covid-19 pandemic placed heavy demands on the city administration.

In February 2023 he announced his cancer diagnosis but stayed in office. In his final year and a half he was unable to carry out his duties, which were handled by his deputies. In 2024 he said he would not seek another term. Kai Koeser of the SPD was elected to succeed him from November 2026.

Hartlef lived in Bützfleth, a village district of Stade, which friends and colleagues said was especially close to his heart. He was married and had a son. From 1988 to 2012 he was a board member and for many years chairman of the sports club TuSV Bützfleth.

Sönke Hartlef died peacefully in the night of 19 to 20 October 2026, aged 64, from cancer, which he had first made public in February 2023. The Stader Tageblatt gives the date as 19 October. The city of Stade announced his death on 21 October. He died a few days before his term as mayor was due to end on 31 October. Flags were flown at half mast at the historic town hall and a book of condolence was placed in the town hall foyer. First City Councillor Lars Kolk and City Councillor Carsten Brokelmann said the city had lost a mayor who was very popular with residents and staff, and District Administrator Kai Seefried paid tribute to his commitment to his village, his city and the region.

Hartlef is remembered in Stade as a mayor who rose from voluntary village politics to lead the city, and who kept faith with his office through years of serious illness. Tributes described him as humane, humorous, reliable and down to earth, a man for whom people and the development of his city always came first.