Tschentscher joined the
Social Democratic Party in 1989. From 2007 until 2018 he served as chairman of the SPD district Hamburg-Nord. He was first elected to the
Hamburgische Bürgerschaft in the
2008 state elections. From 2008 until 2011 he served on the Budget Committee. In addition, he led a parliamentary inquiry into
cost overruns in the construction of the
Elbphilharmonie from 2010.
Finance Senator, 2011–2018 During his tenure as State Minister of Finance Tschentscher oversaw the privatization of the publicly owned shipping finance provider
HSH Nordbank. From 2015 on, Tschentscher was one of the state's representatives at the
Bundesrat, where he served as deputy chairman of the finance committee.
First mayor of Hamburg, 2018–present In March 2018 Tschentscher succeeded
Olaf Scholz, who left state politics to become Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the
fourth coalition government of
Chancellor Angela Merkel. but declined for personal reasons. As one of the state's representatives at the
Bundesrat, Tschentscher is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and on the Committee on European Affairs. He is also a member of the German-Polish Friendship Group set up in cooperation with the
Senate of Poland. During his first year as mayor, he served as
Commissioner of the Federal Republic of Germany for Cultural Affairs under the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation. In the negotiations to form a so-called
traffic light coalition of the SPD, the
Green Party and the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the
2021 federal elections, Tschentscher was part of his party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired by
Carsten Schneider,
Cem Özdemir and
Michael Theurer. Tschentscher was nominated by his party as delegate to the
Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the
President of Germany in
2022. After the
2025 Hamburg state election, the
third Tschentscher senate was formed. ==Other activities==