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The former SPD leader Martin Schulz does not want to run for the Bundestag again in 2021.
That's what the 64-year-old told the "Aachener Nachrichten".
Schulz had previously been elected as the new chairman of the party-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation on Monday.
"With the decision for this office comes the decision not to run for the Bundestag again in autumn 2021," said Schulz.
Until the end of the current legislative period, however, he will “continue to fulfill the duties of his mandate with dedication”.
Schulz has belonged to the Bundestag since 2017. He was also a candidate for Chancellor in 2017.
At the head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Schulz succeeds the former Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Kurt Beck, who has headed the foundation since 2013.
Schulz spoke of an "honorable task".
"We want to develop utopias and visions for the future and make a visible contribution to a just and democratic world," said Schulz after his election.
The foundation wants to be “perceived as a leading think tank that offers a space for debate and discussion,” said Schulz.
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Schulz was active in the European Parliament for 23 years, and in 2012 he became its President.
The party-affiliated foundations make a contribution to political education, for example through publications and grants, and are largely financed by public funds.
According to its own statements, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation is the oldest German political foundation.
It therefore stands for the support and defense of democracy, for the promotion and the right to fair educational opportunities and for international cooperation and solidarity.
The nationwide foundations also include the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (CSU), the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Greens), the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FDP) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Left).