On Friday, the Münster SPD sub-district announcedthat Bogner is one of two candidates interested in running in the 2025 local elections.
In addition to Bogner, the district mayor of Münster's west, Stephan Brinktrine, is also standing for election.
The SPD plans to elect its candidate on 12 September. The current incumbent Markus Lewe (CDU) has announced that he will not stand again after 16 years.
The 52-year-old Bogner grew up in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz and studied theology in Münster and Fribourg.
After completing his doctorate in Paris, he habilitated in Christian social ethics in Münster and was a fellow at the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics in Münster.
Since 2014, he has been Professor of Moral Theology and Ethics at the Swiss University of Fribourg.
According to the party, he has been a member of the SPD since 1995. His theological and political specialisms include human rights. He was a member of the advisory board of the German Institute for Human Rights, an election observer in Togo and is a member of the SPD party executive's working group on religious policy.
Bogner is running to "counter the erosion of democracy against the backdrop of increasing populism".
Bogner is a prominent voice in church reform debates and speaks out in favour of a for a renewal of Christian sexual morality and a fundamental rethink of the Catholic Church's understanding of power understanding of power, leadership and obedience from.
Münster has 322,000 inhabitants and is one of the ten largest university cities in Germany.
The Faculty of Catholic Theology is one of the most important theological centres in Germany.
The diocese of Münster has existed since the year 800.
The city has mostly been governed by the CDU since 1945. Of the 13 mayors since then, only one has belonged to the SPD and three to the Centre Party.
In the last local elections in 2020, the SPD achieved 17.6 per cent for the city council and the CDU 32.7 per cent.
In the mayoral election, the CDU achieved 44.6 per cent, while the SPD's candidate came third with 16.3 per cent after the Greens (28.5 per cent); in the run-off, Lewe prevailed with 52.6 per cent against the Green candidate Peter Todeskino.