Mike Josef: the Assyrian-German mayor of Frankfurt

Mike Josef, the Mayor of Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt am Main since 2023, has an Assyrian background.

Josef was born to Assyrian parents in Qamishli, Syria, before immigrating to Germany at the age of four. A Protestant Christian, he ran for the position of Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 2022 and assumed office in May 2023. He has used his platform to advocate stricter gun control and harder disciplinary actions against drug dealers in the city. 

He studied political science, history and law at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he graduated as a political scientist. He then served as the city’s head of planning and sports before securing his position as mayor.

More than 300 thousand Assyrians are estimated to live in Germany today, making it the country with the largest Assyrian diaspora community in Europe.