Departures of note

Fritz Schramma was a German politician who served as mayor of Cologne from 2000 to 2009. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, he took office after the sudden death of his predecessor Harry Blum, winning a runoff election in September 2000. His unusually long nine-year term combined the remainder of his predecessor's mandate with a full five-year term of his own.

Before entering politics, Schramma worked for many years as a teacher of Latin and philosophy at gymnasiums in the Cologne region. He joined the CDU in 1976 and sat on the Cologne city council from 1989, becoming first mayor in 1999. As mayor he focused on education and childcare, school renovation, and the redevelopment of the Rheinauhafen, and he supported the construction of Germany's largest mosque in Cologne's Ehrenfeld district, acting as a mediator in the surrounding controversy.

His mayoralty was also marked by the collapse of the Cologne City Archive in 2009, for which he faced criticism over his crisis management, and he subsequently declined to seek re-election. After leaving office he remained active in civic and sporting causes and was honored for his voluntary engagement. He left the CDU in 2025 after nearly fifty years of membership, citing the party's lack of internal debate.