Fritz Kuhn was born in Bad Mergentheim (Baden-Württemberg) and grew up in Memmingen (Bayern), where he attended Bernhard Strigel grammar school.

[citation needed] Kuhn was one of the founding members of the Green Party in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980.

From 1981 to 1984 he worked as a research assistant at Augsburg university and as a consultant to the parliamentary party of the Greens in the state parliament (Landtag) of Baden-Württemberg (South-West Germany).

In the immediate aftermath of the elections, he was part of the Green Party's team in the negotiations with the Social Democrats on a coalition agreement for the second government under the leadership of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

In early 2020, he announced that he would not stand in the next elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of his second term later that year.