Gerhard Schroeder - Federal Chancellor of Germany: biography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

One of the most famous politicians in Germany at the beginning of the 21st century is Gerhard Schroeder (Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schroeder is his full name). His fate cannot be called simple and easy. Everything that he managed to achieve in life is entirely his merit.

The beginning of life's journey

Gerhard was born in Mossenberg, in Lower Saxony (now the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia). The Schroeder family belonged to the poorest segments of the population. As Gerhard himself once said, they were "asocial elements".

Parents had no education. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Father Fritz worked as a day laborer and received very little. Money was constantly lacking, because children grew up in the family. The three girls (Gunhilda, Heiderose and Ilse) and the boy Lothar were in constant need. But this income also ceased after the man was called up for war in 1940. Once Fritz managed to escape home for a short stay. It was at the end of 1943. After this visit, another hungry mouth appeared in the family - on April 7, 1944, Gerhard was born. The soldier's wife informed the soldier about the birth of his son in a letter that he received in the summer. see sonfather failed, a few months after his birth (October 4, 1944), the elder Schroeder was killed in Transylvania near the small village of Ceanu Mare (Romania).

Gerhard Erik's mother worked on a farm. To feed the children, she took on any additional work: washed the floors, washed clothes. After the war, she remarried. My stepfather was ill with tuberculosis. In moments of relief, he liked to drink hard. Handouts from good neighbors, social benefits and grandmother's pension helped not to die of hunger.

School years

Gerhard Schroeder could not go to school for a long time. I had to make a living somehow. Classmates often offended a weak and small boy. Gerhard learned to use his strengths to soften his weaknesses. There was no strength, but there were abilities. The boy, to the delight of his mother, studied well. He put his knowledge to his service: he gave cheating to the strongest classmates in exchange for protection.

More boldly Gerhard Schroeder felt with teachers. Being confident in his beliefs, he could argue with them for hours, proving his case. Noticing his oratory skills, even then the teachers predicted a great fate for him.

From the age of fourteen, the boy began to combine study and work. In 1958, he transferred to the evening department and began to earn extra money in a hardware store. The sale of a variety of metal items (nails, screws, staples, hinges, hooks, latches and all the little things necessary for repairs) did not bring much income. Getting 150 marks a month, persistentThe student wanted to get a diploma. To spend his whole life among building materials was not the limit of his dreams. He decided for himself and promised his mother that he would definitely become a lawyer.

On the way to a dream

Gerhard Schroeder was able to fulfill his dream only at the age of 22. At this age, he enters the University of Göttingen at the Faculty of Law. Among students from prosperous families of doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, he was the only one who had to combine study with work. This did not affect academic performance, he studied almost perfectly.

Even before entering the University of Göttingen (in 1963), Schroeder became a member of the SPD. Work, study, political activity - a purposeful student managed to do everything.

Professional activities

Having received the long-awaited diploma in 1971, the future German politician remains at his native university. He works in the department of law. In 1978 he began to engage in private legal practice. The new place of life and work is the capital of Lower Saxony, the city of Hannover. Here he stayed until 1990. He started his career as a lawyer by protecting the rights of his clients in the simplest labor disputes. Gradually grew to participate in criminal cases. Became a well-known lawyer in and around Hannover.

It was this city that marked the beginning of the political career of a talented lawyer. Almost simultaneously with the formation of himself in the profession, he becomes the head of the Young Socialists. This is the name of the youth movement of the SPD party.

Political career

Workon the legal path soon became cramped. In 1980, Gerhard Schroeder was elected to the Bundestag for the first time. The biography of a person from that time is closely connected with the history of Germany. Already in 1986, he became the head of the faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Lower Saxony. Three years later, he takes the place of a member of the presidium of the SPD.

June 21, 1990 is a significant date in the life of a politician. Gerhard Schröder is elected Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.

The mid-nineties brought a loss of votes for the SPD. Although Schroeder Gerhard was nominated for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs as a candidate from the party, he did not turn out to be a minister. The party did not get the required percentage of votes and did not participate in the formation of the government.

Leading Germany

The 1998 elections showed the effectiveness and correctness of the conclusions made after the defeat in the previous elections. Having entered into an alliance with the Green Party, the Social Democrats came to power. The coalition was led by Gerhard Schroeder. His promises to put an end to unemployment and start the country's economic development were believed by the electorate. Moreover, the German Federal Chancellor promised to modernize the economy, supporting entrepreneurs and keeping the social security system intact.

The first term at the head of Germany was a test of the strength of the politician's convictions. Schroeder was forced to choose between two possible paths for the development of the country. Neo-liberals proposed to carry out structural changes with cuts in social programs for the population. LeftSocial Democrats insisted on increasing taxes for the richest segments of the population. It was Schroeder Gerhard who stopped at the first option, the Minister of Economics Oscar Lafontaine followed the second path. This led to their break and the fall of the party's authority among the population.

In September 2000, after a sixteen-year reign, Helmut Kohl retired. Schroeder takes over as Chancellor of Germany.

The next election in 2002 almost ended in a new defeat. Unfulfilled promises led to dissatisfaction with Schroeder's policies. Only persistent opposition to the American invasion of Iraq helped to gain a minimal advantage over the CDU. Flooding in East Germany, effective government assistance to the victims also played a role in the victory of the SPD. Although such a policy led to a stalemate in relations between Germany and the United States, the reality of the formation of a Germany-Russia-France alliance appeared on the horizon.

The next year was the start of the Agenda 2010 program (“Agenda 2010”). The main goal of the program was the liberalization of labor legislation. To reduce unemployment, a policy of stimulating the creation of jobs began to be pursued, expenditures on pension and social payments were reduced, and deductions for he alth care were limited. The chancellor fulfilled his campaign promise to fight unemployment: by mid-2007, the number of unemployed fell to 8.8% of the entire working-age population, which was about 3.7 million people.

The policy of the Federal Chancellor, which does not take into account the wishes of the left socialDemocrats, led to their withdrawal from the party. In 2005, the Left Party was created, consisting of the communists of the former GDR and radicals who left the SPD. A year before this event, Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany, handed over the reins of the party to his successor Franz Müntefering.

In May 2005, the SPD was defeated in the local elections. Gained 37, 1% of the vote showed dissatisfaction with the policy of the party. And although the party has ruled in this land for the past thirty-nine years, the CDU has the majority of votes (44.8%). This arrangement led to the loss of the SPD majority in the Bundesrat, which passed to the CDU-CSU alliance. Therefore, Schroeder took the initiative to hold early elections in September 2005, a year before the end of his term.

Elections were scheduled for September 18th. Nobody could predict their outcome. The Social Democratic Party and the CDU-CSU coalition won almost an equal number of votes. Neither bloc received the right to create a one-party government. The parties entered into negotiations and agreed to create a "grand coalition" of the SPD-CDU-CSU. Angela Merkel became Chancellor of Germany on October 10, 2005.

SPD managed to obtain eight portfolios. The key ministries under the leadership of the Social Democrats were the following ministries: finance, justice, foreign affairs, economic cooperation and development, labor, he alth, environmental protection, and transport. The former chancellor turned down an offer to take any position in the German government, saidabout the refusal of the mandate in the Bundestag.

Life after politics

Schroeder Gerhard (German chancellor in 1998-2005) moved away from politics and delved into business. According to him, the age of sixty-one cannot be the reason for his removal from business. He does not intend to sit at home, annoy his wife and raise children. Therefore, after his resignation, he occupies the most important positions in international projects.

Schroeder headed the committee of shareholders of the operator of the construction of the North European gas pipeline under the B altic Sea. Every year, Gazprom alone pays him a quarter of a million euros. Since 2006, he has served as an advisor on the advisory board of the European Investment Banking Group Rothschild Group.

Family: consistency in unpredictability

Gerhard Schroeder tried to start his own family four times. This fact alone speaks of its unpredictability. Gerhard himself considers this to be consistent.

The first marriage was the shortest, only four years. Student love passed quickly, Eva Shubach filed for divorce in 1972. Soon Gerhard remarried. The second wife, Anna Taschenmacher, endured family life with Schroeder for twelve years. In 1984, the family breaks up to create conditions for a third attempt. Marriage to Hiltrud Hansen ended after thirteen years.

Now Schroeder is married to Doris Koepf. This young journalist is nineteen years younger than her husband. She has a daughter, Clara, from her first marriage. Schroeder has no children of his own. The couple decided to adopt two children. Both children from a Russian orphanagein St. Petersburg. Thus, in 2004, three-year-old Victoria appeared in their family, and in 2006, a little orphan boy, Gregor.

Big family is fond of tennis. The father is trying to instill in everyone the desire to master foreign languages, primarily English, which is the language of business communication. Gerhard loves jazz, so even the youngest member of the Gregor family knows him.

Gerhard didn't know his father, but he has a strong devotion to his ancestors. There is always a photograph of Fritz Schroeder in the uniform of a Wehrmacht soldier on the politician's desktop. In 2004, Gerhard visited the mass grave in Ceanu Mare for the first time, where his father is buried. This happened when he became older than his father (at that time he was 60 years old).

An illiterate mother, who once did not believe in her son's words, does not understand his life. He always tried to do everything for his mother.

Criticism of Schroeder's policy

The presence of dissatisfaction with the results of the politician's activities speaks of him as an accomplished figure. Gerhard Schroeder, whose politics is full of contradictions, is no exception.

First of all, many leaders of the countries remained at a loss after the signing of an agreement between Russia and Germany on the NEGP (North European Gas Pipeline under the B altic Sea). Alexander Lukashenko even called this project "the most stupid" from Russia. The head of one of the German parties, Guido Westerwelle, suspected the former chancellor of corruption. True, such an accusation was challenged by Schroeder in court, by decisionwho cannot be accused of having a personal interest in the SEG.

The second policy that caused outrage was the refusal of the Schroeder government in 2004 to support the US during its invasion of Iraq. Congressman Tom Lantos at the opening of a memorial in Washington, dedicated to the victims of communism, in 2007 called Schroeder's actions "political prostitution".

Voters began to express dissatisfaction after publications in Bild. Passion for expensive wine from France, love for Cuban cigars (about fifty euros apiece), worship of chic Italian suits for twenty thousand euros alienated the electorate from the once beloved politician.

Schroeder definitely couldn't win the 2005 elections. It would seem that this does not matter, but the voters reacted negatively to the fact that the politician dyes his hair.

Results of the seven-year reign

The results of Schroeder's reign were ambiguous laws. It was under him that prostitution was included in the list of professions, same-sex marriages became legal. At the same time, women won the right to serve in the Bundeswehr. And the famous Hartz IV law caused bewilderment in general. Such an anti-social law could be expected from anyone, but not from a person who experienced extreme poverty in childhood.

The people of the country reacted positively to the bold confrontation of the United States, when they, through the mouth of the Federal Chancellor, refused to take part in the war in Iraq. The slogan "Make the world stable" is being implemented systematically. Germany coordinates all its foreign policy steps with common European interests. Beinga bonding element of the EU, the country does not present itself outside the European context.

The ex-chancellor himself does not hide his positive assessment of his life path. From a half-starved fatherless boy to the head of a united Germany - this is the result of his political career.