Frank-Walter Steinmeier
His mother, born in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), came as a refugee from a Lutheran part of Silesia during the flight and expulsion of Germans after World War II.[11] Following his Abitur, Steinmeier did his military service from 1974 to 1976, then studied law and political science at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, where Brigitte Zypries was a fellow student.In November 1998 Steinmeier was appointed as Secretary of State, a junior Chancellery bureaucrat, and Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services at the office of the chancellor following Schröder's election victory.[16] In one significant foreign policy disagreement, Steinmeier held in 2009 that Germany should by 2013 lay the groundwork for withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, a deployment that around two-thirds of Germans opposed by then.[28] Pressed by lawmakers to say more on his attitude toward Russia in the wake of the high-profile murders of opposition figures Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko at a January 2007 hearing at the European Parliament, Steinmeier stated that "[t]here is a certain trend toward [media] hysterics and one needs to get a sense of reason back into the debate".[43] In his election campaign, he argued for new tax rules to deter high executive pay and bonuses, and for minimum wages to slow the growing gap between Germany's highest and lowest earners.[48] In 2011, Steinmeier argued that Merkel's decision to appoint her economics adviser, Jens Weidmann, to be the next head of the Bundesbank undermined the political independence and public trust in the German central bank.Upon taking office, Steinmeier initiated an ambitious review of Germany's foreign policy, holding meetings nationwide and drawing in more than 12,000 people who worked at the ministry or abroad.[52] In light of criticism from the United States, Steinmeier stood firm on Germany's approach in the Russo-Ukrainian War, where it was balancing support for European economic sanctions on Russia with leaving the door open to a revived partnership.[57] Steinmeier has repeatedly ruled out arms shipments to resolve the conflict,[58] and that was German policy until two days after the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, at which time Chancellor Olaf Scholz ended it.[citation needed] In 2015, Steinmeier hosted a meeting of the delegations from Libya's two rival governments, who were battling for control of the country, and United Nations Special Representative Bernardino León to discuss a UN-sponsored peace and power-sharing proposal despite splits among some of the parties.[65] Following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, he warned that any move by Turkey to reinstate the death penalty would derail its efforts to join the European Union.[68] After Germany had only narrowly managed to avoid a deficit warning from the European Commission in 2002, Schröder and Steinmeier became the driving forces behind weakening the Stability and Growth Pact, a rule-based framework for the coordination of national fiscal policies originally intended as the guarantor of a stable euro.[71] Under Steinmeier's parliamentary leadership, the Social Democrats raised pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to more burden-sharing to stem the euro zone crisis, repeatedly calling on her to assume greater risks to avert a breakup of the single currency.[72] In both February and November 2012, his parliamentary group voted largely in favour of the Merkel government's proposal for eurozone bailout packages for Greece,[73][74][75] while criticizing the measures as being "not an enduring solution for the Greeks".[78] Reacting to a growth of euro-skeptic political parties across Europe by early 2014, Steinmeier offered the United Kingdom limited support on renegotiating the Treaties of the European Union, saying Germany wanted to see Britain's influence in the "midst" of the EU, not on "the sidelines".[79] After Britain's vote to leave the EU in 2016, he argued that the union lacked the cohesion to undertake major new integration steps and should instead focus on migration, high youth unemployment and security.In December 2014, he met with the foreign ministers from the three Nordic countries Denmark, Finland and Sweden – Margot Wallström, Erkki Tuomioja and Martin Lidegaard – for the so-called "N3 + 1" format to discuss issues of common concern for the first time.[81] In August 2016, he joined French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in pledging to "reinvigorate" the Weimar Triangle and published a document 'A strong Europe in a world of uncertainties'.[87] Together with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius, he flew on several joint diplomatic missions between 2014 and 2015, including to Moldova, Georgia,[88] Tunisia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.[91] In May 2007, the daily Financial Times Deutschland reported that Steinmeier had served as mediator in the so-called Bronze Night controversy, an Estonia-Russia dispute over the removal of a Red Army memorial in Tallinn.[92] Upon returning to government in late 2013, Steinmeier criticized Russia in his inaugural speech for exploiting Ukraine's economic plight to prevent it from signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement.According to the letter, "by the content of this declaration we could respond to Russia's wishes and begin a closer exchange of views on energy and investment protection issues, even if the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement does not directly touch on them".[129] At the state memorial service for deceased Namibian president Hage Geingob in Windhoek on 24 February 2024, Steinmeier said that it was "high time" for Germany to "tender an apology to Namibia" for the Herero and Nama genocide from 1904 to 1908.[143] Following the 2013 elections, Steinmeier became the first prominent member of the Social Democrats to be confronted with allegations that he plagiarized parts of his 1991 doctoral dissertation about the role of the state in the prevention of homelessness.[145] In November 2016, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives agreed with the Social Democrats to support Steinmeier's candidacy for president in the presidential election, scheduled for 12 February 2017.Steinmeier declared he would not consider a dissolution of the Bundestag as a preferable solution, and managed to persuade Schulz to meet with Angela Merkel and start preliminary talks.[153] Shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Steinmeier expressed regret for his earlier stance on Russia, saying his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been a clear mistake.[157][citation needed] Ukraine had previously criticized Steinmeier for his connections to Russia and his role in strengthening German-Russian relations under the Change through Trade (Wandel durch Handel) policy.[160] Upon his return to Berlin he spoke at length of his Ukrainian experiences on 28 October, and opened with vivid descriptions of the horrors of war, noting that it had caused "the deepest crisis" that a reunified Germany has seen.
President of GermanyIncumbentAngela MerkelOlaf ScholzJoachim GauckVice Chancellor of GermanyFranz MünteferingGuido WesterwelleMinister of Foreign AffairsSigmar GabrielJoschka FischerLeader of the OppositionGregor GysiSocial Democratic PartyBundestagChief WhipThomas OppermannPeter StruckLeader of the Social Democratic PartyAndrea NahlesPeer SteinbrückKurt BeckBärbel DieckmannHead of the ChancelleryGerhard SchröderBodo HombachThomas de MaizièreState Secretary at the ChancelleryBernd SchmidbauerHead of theState Chancellery of Lower SaxonyMinister-PresidentMemberBrandenburg an der Havel – Potsdam-Mittelmark I – Havelland III – Teltow-Fläming I27 October 2009DetmoldWest GermanyElke BüdenbenderAlma materUniversity of GiessenBundeswehrGerman Air Forcefederal minister for foreign affairsOrganization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeSocial Democratic Party of Germanyminister-president of Lower SaxonyChancellor of GermanyGerman Chancelleryintelligence servicesChief of Staff of the Chancellery2005 federal electionforeign ministergrand coalition2009 federal election2013 federal electionCDU/CSUFederal Conventionelectedre-electedAgenda 2010Church of LippeCalvinistregional church bodiesmember churchProtestant Church of GermanyBreslauPolandLutheranSilesiaflight and expulsion of Germans after World War IIAbiturJustus Liebig University GiessenBrigitte Zypriesbest manRüdiger GrubefootballReformedProtestantBerlin-NeuköllnLower SaxonyHanoverSchröder's election victoryoffice of the chancellorgrey eminencewar against IraqTommy Franks1986 terrorist bombing of the LaBelle discoMurat KurnazGuantánamo Bay2005 federal electionsGrand coalition cabinetWilly Brandtpresidency of the Council of the European UnionVice-Chancellorcombat climate changeEuropean UnionOstpolitikAnna PolitkovskayaAlexander LitvinenkoEuropean ParliamentRussiaDmitry MedvedevDmitri MedvedevVladimir Putin2008 Russian presidential electionForeign AffairsYegor GaidarUS missile defense complex in PolandOleg Petrovich OrlovMemorial human rights groupObama administration2009 federal electionsWorld Jewish CongressWorld War IIJens WeidmannBundesbankJohn Kerryelections of 2013Michael RothMaria BöhmerMohammad Javad ZarifRusso-Ukrainian WarMinsk IINormandy formatsituation in the East of UkraineNadiya Savchenko2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine