When SPD leading candidate Steffen Krach visits a Berlin school, you can get an impression of the dilemma faced by the Social Democrats, who have co-governed the city as a junior partner of the CDU for the last three years.
Krach is a guest at the Gretel Bergmann School in Berlin-Marzahn. The large community school has a student population for whom headmaster Robert Hüttner claims special care needs. 20 to 30 percent have problems even reliably showing up to class. Because of family conflicts or psychological problems. In the high-rise area on the outskirts of the city, an above-average number of families receive social benefits.
Krach attends a 10th grade class at the Gretel Bergmann School, where Mr. Heide teaches today. Mr. Heide, with black horn-rimmed glasses and a white polo shirt, recently graduated from high school himself. He is 19 years old and is a teaching student in the third semester. The school is trying to address the shortage of teachers with almost a dozen students. According to principal Hüttner, only two thirds of the teachers at the school are trained teachers. He would also like to see significantly more social workers.
Schools and educational policy are one of the few areas in which the states can largely decide for themselves where to proceed. The CDU has been the education senator in Berlin for three years, but before that the SPD determined the department for 27 years. Krach, who studied political science, was once the office manager of the then SPD education senator Sandra Scheeres.
For many years, Berlin has mostly landed at the bottom of the list in various educational comparison studies. And not even SPD candidate Krach, dressed in a light summer jacket and white sneakers when he visited school, tries to sell Berlin's education policy as a success story. "I definitely wouldn't stand up and say we've done everything right in the last 20 or 25 years. I'm not saying that."
However, Krach points out that the so-called school building offensive in Berlin has allowed many schools to be completely renovated or newly opened in recent years. The SPD politician speaks of a process. "It won't happen overnight, which is sometimes frustrating. And the same applies not only to the buildings, but also to the equipment with trained teachers."
In November last year, Krach was unanimously chosen as the top candidate by the Berlin SPD at a state party conference. The often quarreling SPD regional association wanted to put a fresh face forward with Krach's election. Krach was able to gain experience as Berlin's State Secretary for Science between 2014 and 2021 and gained some recognition among insiders in the process; But he wasn't in the front row of his party at the time. And in 2021 he went back to his hometown of Hanover, where he became regional president, a kind of district administrator for the greater Hanover area.
Experienced, pragmatic and fresh - that's how Krach tries to convince voters of himself. A typical sentence from him is that he doesn't want to look back so much as he wants to look forward. In addition, a lot has been achieved in Berlin: "In the scientific sector, in the cultural sector, we have 500,000 more jobs than we did 30 years ago in the city."
The SPD has posted noise posters widely throughout the city. For example with a determined look and the sentence: “The rent madness ends now.” The lack of housing and rising rents are one of the central election campaign issues in the capital. Krach promises better protection for tenants through a verifiable rent register and accelerated new construction. He points out that 80,000 new apartments have been built in the last five years, including many social housing.
However, the top candidate also admits that the new construction targets he set himself of 20,000 apartments per year were not achieved. Since 2021, the SPD has provided the construction senator in Berlin. That's also a dilemma for noise.
When Krach was named the top candidate last fall, the Berlin SPD was polling at 13 to 16 percent. In the ARD pre-election survey by Infratest Dimap from September 10, 2026, the SPD got 12 percent, putting it in fifth place among the parties. The figures from the previous week (September 2nd, 2026) also show: Only 19 percent of Berliners are satisfied with the work of the CDU/SPD Senate, 77 percent express dissatisfaction. A difficult starting point for Krach and the SPD to lead the future Senate.
In addition, top candidate Krach has been facing investigations by the Hanover public prosecutor's office for several days, which have to do with his previous work as regional president in Hanover. According to the investigators, this involves, among other things, the initial suspicion of accepting benefits in two cases. Krach rejects all allegations. The presumption of innocence applies.
In any case, a government majority without the participation of the SPD is unlikely to come about, as no party wants to enter into an alliance with the AfD. According to the surveys, after the election it could be enough for a coalition of the CDU, Greens and SPD as well as an alliance of the Left, Greens and SPD. However, Krach speaks out against expropriations of housing companies, which the Left has declared to be a condition of the coalition.
Since 1989, since Walter Momper's red-green Senate, the SPD has ruled Berlin - either as a mayor's party or as a junior partner. Steffen Krach and his Social Democrats have the best chance of staying that way. No matter how good or bad the party does on September 20th.
