He had a doctorate in law and was an assistant secretary of the Lower-Saxon ministry of the interior.

[3] As a member of the Bundestag, he worked mainly in the committee on economic affairs.

[3] Ahrens was president of the Association of European Border Regions from 1984 to 1996.

[4] He served as president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1983 to 1986[5][3][6] and was the first German to do so.

This biography article about a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) is a stub.