Schröder, Gerhard

born April 7, 1944, Mossenberg, near Detmold, Ger.

Chancellor of Germany.

In his youth he joined the Social Democratic Party and the Young Socialists, and, as a law student at Göttingen, he participated in the student protests of 1968. He served in the Bundestag (1980–86), and he succeeded to the premiership of the state of Lower Saxony in 1990. His election as federal chancellor in 1998 ended 16 years of conservative rule under Helmut Kohl. Despite continuing high unemployment in Germany, Schröder led his Social Democratic–Green coalition to victory in 2002, and he was reelected chancellor.

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▪ 1999

      History was made in Germany on Sept. 27, 1998, when Gerhard Schröder led the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to power, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Helmut Kohl. The Social Democrats had mounted Germany's first U.S.-style media-driven campaign, marketing Schröder chiefly on his appealing image. His energy and vitality were made to contrast favourably with Kohl's long-winded speechifying and fatigued appearance. The substance behind his energy was unclear, however, and many discerned little difference on the issues between the incumbent Christian Democrats and the SPD challengers. Schröder seemed evasive on topics such as Germany's role in the European Union and lacked concrete proposals for economic revival, notably in the eastern part of the country. His message was pragmatic and domestic: continue Germany's social welfare programs while encouraging a probusiness agenda. In this way, he sought to please the party faithful and reach out to small-business owners and young professionals, while reinventing himself as a left-leaning centrist.

      Comparisons with U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were inevitable—Schröder too was a young, vigorous left-centrist taking over after years of conservative rule. As chancellor he faced a fractious coalition with the Greens, the difficulty of filling Kohl's very large shoes in the foreign arena, and troublesome unemployment at home. By the year's end he had already encountered challenges—from legislators over his plan for new taxes on energy and from businessmen because of his proposal to close tax loopholes.

      Schröder was born on April 7, 1944, in Mossenberg, near Detmold, Lower Saxony. Shortly after Gerhard's birth, his father was killed in action in World War II, and the family's reduced circumstances led his mother to take cleaning jobs to support her family. Schröder left school at age 14 to work in a number of odd jobs. He later enrolled in night classes and received his secondary school diploma. In 1963 he joined the SPD and was politically active in the Young Socialists. As a law student at Göttingen University he participated in the student protests of 1968.

      Schröder set up a law practice in Hanover. In 1980 he was elected to the Bundestag (parliament) and served there until 1986, when he lost a campaign for premier of the state of Lower Saxony. He led the SPD opposition in the state parliament until he was elected to the premiership in 1990. The SPD joined with the Greens, the ecological party, in a "Red-Green" coalition government until 1994, when the Social Democrats won a clear majority. Schröder's strong showing in the March 1998 state elections effectively clinched his nomination as the party's candidate for federal chancellor.

CATHERINE KEICH

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▪ chancellor of Germany

born April 7, 1944, Mossenberg, near Detmold, Germany

 

 German politician, chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005.

      Having practiced law in Hannover, Schröder was elected to the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in 1980 and served there until 1986, when he lost an election for premier of the state of Lower Saxony. He led the Social Democratic Party (Social Democratic Party of Germany) (SPD) opposition in the state parliament until he was elected to the premiership in 1990. The SPD joined with the Greens, a left-leaning environmentalist party, in a “Red-Green” coalition government until 1994, when the SPD won a clear majority. Schröder's strong showing in the March 1998 state elections clinched his nomination as the party's candidate for federal chancellor, and in the fall of 1998 he led the SPD to electoral victory and formed a coalition government with the Greens.

      As chancellor, Schröder was concerned with promoting European integration, reducing Germany's high rate of unemployment, limiting the use of nuclear power in energy production (a goal that was important to his coalition partners, the Greens), and furthering the economic reconstruction of eastern Germany. His government liberalized German laws on citizenship, allowing children of foreign parents to assume dual nationality and to choose their preferred nationality on entering adulthood, and deployed German troops in Kosovo (1999) and Afghanistan (2001). Despite economic stagnation and continuing high unemployment, Schröder was reelected as chancellor in 2002.

      The early part of his second term was dominated by a diplomatic confrontation between members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which then included Germany, over UN efforts to ensure that Iraq (Iraq War) did not continue to possess biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons. In November 2002 Germany supported a Security Council resolution requiring the return to Iraq of weapons inspectors, who had been withdrawn in 1998. In December, U.S. President George W. Bush (Bush, George W.) charged that Iraq had failed to cooperate fully with the weapons inspectors; two months later, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Spain introduced a second resolution explicitly authorizing the use of military force against Iraq. Schröder, along with French President Jacques Chirac (Chirac, Jacques) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Putin, Vladimir), publicly opposed the resolution, proposing instead a toughened inspections regime. The disagreement led to a major rift in German-American relations. When the United States and the United Kingdom led an attack on Iraq in March 2003, Schröder expressed his country's strong opposition to the campaign.

      On the domestic front, Germany's economy continued to worsen, and in 2003 Schröder announced a major reform program, which included cuts to the country's generous welfare system. The proposed changes proved unpopular, especially with Germany's powerful unions, and in 2004 Schröder stepped down as party leader. After the SPD's poor showing in the 2005 regional elections, Schröder engineered an early general election, in which the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, won a narrow victory but failed to capture a majority. Following weeks of negotiations, a coalition government was created with Angela Merkel (Merkel, Angela) of the CDU as chancellor. Schröder declined a cabinet position in the new administration.

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