Two new department heads start at the city administration on 01.02.2025

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche presented the certificates of appointment to department heads Benjamin Koppe and Dirk Lange today, Friday, 31.01.2025. This means that both will officially start as full-time councillors of Jena City Council on 01.02.2025.

Benjamin Koppe (CDU) has already held the position of Head of Finance, Security and Citizen Services for the past six years. He will also take over the office of Mayor and thus become the first deputy mayor.

Dirk Lange (non-party), previously Head of Central Process and Project Management at the City of Jena, completes the team of aldermen. He will head the Department of Urban Development and Environment.

Mayor and Head of Urban Development Christian Gerlitz, who was most recently also Deputy Head of Finance, Security and Citizens' Services, is leaving his position in the city administration and will take up his position as Managing Director of the Ernst Abbe Foundation on 01.02.2025. He symbolically handed over the baton to his two successors today.

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche wished the two new department heads every success in their new positions and paid tribute to Christian Gerlitz's work for the city of Jena: "The bar for his successors is extremely high. Over the past six years, Christian Gerlitz has worked with the greatest possible commitment for the benefit and success of the city of Jena and has driven forward an almost unimaginable number of important urban development projects."

In addition to almost 200 million in funding acquired for transport, urban development and climate adaptation, numerous construction projects - such as the Inselplatz campus, the building rights for Eichplatz, the new Ernst Abbe Library, the Erlenhöfe to promote social housing in the city or the ZEISS high-tech site and the production site in Isserstedt - are among the successes that Jena owes to the work of Christian Gerlitz. With long-term strategies and concepts such as the climate action plan, cycling and local transport concept, the draft land use plan, the Jena building land model and the establishment of municipal working groups for urban-rural cooperation, he will also have a lasting influence on Jena's future development.