Dirk Behrendt

Behrendt has been a member of the Greens since 1994.^[4] From 1995 to 1999, he was a member of the Kreuzberg district council, where was chairman of the Environment and Transportation Committee and a member of the Economic Committee.^[1] During the interim coalition of the SPD and Greens which governed Berlin in late 2001, Behrendt was a staff member for Senator for Justice Wolfgang Wieland.^[4]

Behrendt was elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin in the 2006 Berlin state election as representative for Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg 2, winning 42% of the vote.^[5] He became legal policy spokesman for the Greens faction, and a member of the Interior Committee and Constitution and Law Committee.^[2]

In 2011, Behrendt drew attention to the problems caused by booming tourism in Kreuzberg,^[6] accusing the SPD–Left government of praising the numbers but ignoring the issues.^[7] He opposed strengthening law enforcement to shut down loud parties, instead proposing limits on overnight accommodation in the borough.^[8] He was re-elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus in the 2011 Berlin state election, winning 49.8% in his constituency, the strongest result for any directly elected member.^[9]

Behrendt is considered a representative of the left wing of the Greens, and during his time in the Abgeordnetenhaus, he had a feud with the more conservative faction co-leader Volker Ratzmann. After the 2011 election, Behrendt challenged him for the leadership, but was unsuccessful.^[2]

Behrendt did not seek re-election in the 2016 Berlin state election.^[10]

After the 2016 election, Beherndt was appointed Senator for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination in the second Müller senate.^[11]

In 2018, he suggested that fare evasion should be classified as a misdemeanour rather than a felony, and proposed a corresponding initiative for consideration by the German Bundesrat. At the same time, he opposed completely free public transit on that basis that tourists should be required to pay to ride, though he was open to dropping fees for Berlin residents.^[12][13]

In March 2020, Behrendt said that Germany had a human rights obligation to take refugees from the Moria refugee camp in Greece, and suggested that the state government could collaborate with non-governmental organisations to fly refugees to Berlin if the federal government did not take timely action.^[14]

Behrendt left office after the 2021 Berlin state election and the formation of the Giffey senate, and was succeeded as Justice Senator by Lena Kreck of The Left.

• "Dr. Dirk Behrendt". German Bundesrat (in German). Retrieved 25 January 2022.
• "Dirk Behrendt". Munzinger-Archiv (in German). 14 February 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2022.