Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (born 4 April 1945) is a French-German politician and former student leader. He became famous in 1968 as a leader of the May 1968 protests in France and was nicknamed Dany le Rouge for his activism and hair color.
Born in Montauban, France, to German Jewish parents who fled Nazi Germany, Cohn-Bendit was stateless at birth. He became a German citizen in 1959 and later obtained French citizenship in 2015. He moved to Frankfurt as a child and studied in France and Germany, though he did not complete a degree.
In politics, he joined the Greens and served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2014. He was co-president of the Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament and co-chairs the Spinelli Group, which works to push Europe toward greater federal unity.
Cohn-Bendit’s writings from the 1970s about sexuality and certain remarks later in life sparked controversy. He received the European Parliament’s European Initiative Prize in 2016.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:08 (CET).