Political career
In 1975, he represented the CDU on Ulm city council before acting as personal assistant to Manfred Rommel from 1985 onwards. In 1986, he was elected mayor of Schwäbisch Gmünd, where he was in office until 1993 before becoming burgomaster for the arts, education and sport in the Baden-Württemberg capital of Stuttgart in 1996.
In elections for the post of Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, he won the office in the second ballot on 10 November 1996, defeating Rezzo Schlauch, the candidate for the Alliance '90/The Greens on a relatively narrow margin of 43.1% versus 39.3%.
On 24 October 2004, Schuster was re-elected to the post in the second ballot with 53.3% of votes. His opponents were Ute Kumpf (SPD), who gained 45.2% of votes in the 2nd ballot, and Boris Palmer (Alliance '90/The Greens) – who withdrew his candidacy after the first ballot, indirectly recommending that his supporters should back Schuster instead.
On 6 December 2010, Schuster was elected president of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.
When completing his term as Lord Mayor on 6 January 2013, he was made "honoured citizen" (Ehrenbürger). His successor Fritz Kuhn is a member of the German Green party, thus being the first post-war Mayor of Stuttgart not a member of CDU.
