Ashok-Alexander Sridharan

Sridharan was born in Bonn on June 15, 1965[2] to a diplomat from Kerala, India, who moved to West Germany in the 1950s, and a mother from Bonn.[3] He spent his childhood and university years in Bonn, which he used to brand himself as a "Bonn lad" during his campaign. He studied at the Aloisiuskolleg, a private and Catholic high school in Bonn, before studying law at the University of Bonn.[2] In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Sridharen stated that his Indian roots weren't relevant to his campaign. He also stated, "I think [Indian interests] could even contribute efforts to make Bonn better-known internationally than it already is and that would do us good. We have many international companies and organizations here and I feel we have to strengthen that". Due to his ancestry, Sridharan has noted that there has been negative attention towards him through xenophobic comments.[1][4]