Olaf Scholz

Olaf Scholz

MdB
Olaf Scholz; MdB
	Scholz in 2024
Chancellor of Germany
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 8 December 2021
President	Frank-Walter Steinmeier;
Vice Chancellor	Robert Habeck;
Preceded by	Angela Merkel
Vice Chancellor of Germany
	In office; 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Sigmar Gabriel
Succeeded by	Robert Habeck
Federal Minister of Finance
	In office; 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Wolfgang Schäuble
Succeeded by	Christian Lindner
First Mayor of Hamburg
	In office; 7 March 2011 – 13 March 2018
Second Mayor	Dorothee Stapelfeldt; Katharina Fegebank
Preceded by	Christoph Ahlhaus
Succeeded by	Peter Tschentscher
Chancellor
Early political career ; 2001–2009
Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs
	In office; 21 November 2007 – 27 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Franz Müntefering
Succeeded by	Franz Josef Jung
Chief Whip of the Social Democratic Party
	In office; 13 October 2005 – 21 November 2007
Leader	Peter Struck
Preceded by	Wilhelm Schmidt
Succeeded by	Thomas Oppermann
General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party
	In office; 20 October 2002 – 21 March 2004
Leader	Gerhard Schröder
Preceded by	Franz Müntefering
Succeeded by	Klaus Uwe Benneter
Senator for the Interior of Hamburg
	In office; 30 May 2001 – 31 October 2001
First Mayor	Ortwin Runde
Preceded by	Hartmuth Wrocklage
Succeeded by	Ronald Schill
Preceded by
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the German Bundestag ; for Potsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 26 October 2021
Preceded by	Manja Schüle (2019)
Member of the German Bundestag; for Hamburg Altona
	In office; 17 October 2002 – 11 March 2011
Preceded by	Himself (2001)
Succeeded by	Ingo Egloff
	In office; 26 October 1998 – 6 June 2001
Preceded by	Marliese Dobberthien
Succeeded by	Himself (2002)
Constituency	Hamburg Altona
Member of the Hamburg Parliament
	In office; 2 March 2015 – 2 March 2015
Preceded by	Himself (2011)
Constituency	Social Democratic list
	In office; 7 March 2011 – 7 March 2011
Preceded by	multi-member district
Succeeded by	Andrea Rugbarth
Constituency	Social Democratic list
Personal details
Born	14 June 1958 (age 66); Osnabrück, West Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	; Britta Ernst (m. 1998)
Residence	Old Market Square, Potsdam
Alma mater	University of Hamburg
Occupation	Politician; lawyer; cooperative syndic;
Signature
Website	olaf-scholz.spd.de

Olaf Scholz (German pronunciation: [ˈoːlaf ˈʃɔlts]; born (1958-06-14)14 June 1958) is a German politician, and has been Chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. He was First Mayor of Hamburg from 7 March 2011 to 13 March 2018. From 2018 until 2021, Scholz was the Vice Chancellor of Germany and Federal Minister of Finance during the Angela Merkel cabinet.

Early life

Scholz was born on June 14, 1958, in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, but grew up Hamburg's Rahlstedt district.^[1] He began studying law at the University of Hamburg in 1978 as part of a one-stage legal training course.^[2]

Hamburg and national politics

From May to October 2001, he was Minister of the Interior (Innensenator) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and from 2002 to 2004 he was general secretary of the SPD.

In 2005 Scholz was elected a member of the sixteenth Bundestag, and succeeded Franz Müntefering as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, when the latter left office in 2007.^[3]

In 2010, Scholz took part in the annual Bilderberg Meeting in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain.^[4]

On 20 February 2011, the Social Democrats led by Scholz won the Hamburg state election, 2011 with 48.3% of the votes, resulting in 62 out of 121 seats in the Hamburg Parliament.^[5] Scholz resigned as a member of the seventeenth Bundestag on 11 March 2011 shortly after his election as First Mayor.

Merkel cabinet

After the 2017 federal election, the CDU, CSU and SPD agreed to continue a coalition, Scholz was accepted by all parties as Federal Minister of Finance. Scholz was sworn in alongside the rest of the Government on 14 March 2018. He also took the role of Vice-Chancellor of Germany under Angela Merkel.^[6] Within his first months in office, Scholz became one of Germany's most popular politicians, reaching an approval rating of 50 percent.^[7]

Chancellor of Germany

2021 federal election

On August 10, 2020, the SPD party executive nominated him as its chancellor candidate for the 2021 federal election in Germany. Scholz led the SPD to a narrow victory in the election, winning 25.8% of the vote and 206 seats in the Bundestag.^[8]

On 8 December 2021, Scholz was elected and sworn-in as Chancellor by the Bundestag with 395 votes in favour and 303 against.^[9] At 63 years, 177 days of age, Scholz is the oldest person to become Chancellor of Germany since Ludwig Erhard who was 66 years, 255 days old when he assumed office on 17 October 1963.

Tenure

During his campaign in the 2021 election, Scholz was against forcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. However, since the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant began to rise in late November 2021, he supported a vaccine mandate, including closure of non-essential retail stores to unvaccinated adults and a vaccine mandate for adults.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

Personal life

Scholz is married to SPD politician Britta Ernst since 1998. The couple live in Potsdam since 2018.^[15]

Scholz was raised in member of the Protestant Church in Germany.^[16] At his inauguration as chancellor in 2021, Scholz took the oath of office without a reference to God (the second chancellor to do so after Gerhard Schröder). He is the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany who is not a member of a church.^[17]

References

↑ Cliffe, Jeremy (3 September 2021). "How Olaf Scholz and the SPD could lead Germany's next government". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
↑ Schindler, Fabian (21 March 2011). "Stades Bürgermeister verkündet seinen Abschied". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
↑ Andreas Cremer and Brian Parkin, "Muentefering, Vice-Chancellor Under Merkel, Quits", Bloomberg.com, 13 November 2007.
↑ "Official Bilderberg Meeting Website". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
↑ "AICGS Coverage of the 2011 Land Elections". Archived from the original on 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
↑ NDR. "Nachrichten aus Hamburg". www.ndr.de. Archived from the original on 19 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
↑ Michael Nienaber (29 May 2018), Germany's 'miserly' Scholz irks comrades at home and abroad Archived 29 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
↑ CNN, Frederik Pleitgen, Salma Abdelaziz, Nadine Schmidt, Stephanie Halasz and Laura Smith-Spark. "SPD wins most seats in Germany's landmark election, preliminary official results show". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-27. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Bennhold, Katrin (8 December 2021). "Germany Live Updates: Parliament Approves Scholz as Chancellor, Ending Merkel Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
↑ "2G und Impfen: Das sind die neuen Maßnahmen" [2G and vaccination: these are the new measures]. ZDF (in German). 2 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
↑ "Wegen Omikron: Bald auch strengere Corona-Regeln für Geimpfte" [Because of Omicron: Stricter corona rules soon also for vaccinated]. NDR (in German). 24 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
↑ "Corona-Gipfel: Olaf Scholz will jetzt drastisch reagieren" [Corona Summit: Olaf Scholz wants to react dramatically]. T-Online (in German). 2 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
↑ "Olaf Scholz für generelle Corona-Impfpflicht und 2G im Einzelhandel" [Olaf Scholz for general corona vaccinations and 2G in retail]. RND (in German). 30 November 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
↑ "Nächster Corona-Hammer droht: Scholz will 2G-Pflicht beim Einkaufen" [Nearest Corona Hammer threatens: Scholz wants 2G duty when shopping]. Merkur.de (in German). 1 December 2021. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
↑ Ildiko Röd (25 June 2018), Vizekanzler ist Neu-Potsdamer Archived 21 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Märkische Allgemeine.
↑ Forster, Joel (22 September 2021). "Germany election: Christians not exempt from falling into polarisation". Evangelical Focus. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
↑ "Olaf Scholz: Darum verzichtet er beim Amtseid auf "So wahr mir Gott helfe"". Der Westen (in German). 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.

[:0-1] Cliffe, Jeremy (3 September 2021). "How Olaf Scholz and the SPD could lead Germany's next government". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.

[2] Schindler, Fabian (21 March 2011). "Stades Bürgermeister verkündet seinen Abschied". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2021.

[3] Andreas Cremer and Brian Parkin, "Muentefering, Vice-Chancellor Under Merkel, Quits", Bloomberg.com, 13 November 2007.

[4] "Official Bilderberg Meeting Website". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

[5] "AICGS Coverage of the 2011 Land Elections". Archived from the original on 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

[6] NDR. "Nachrichten aus Hamburg". www.ndr.de. Archived from the original on 19 July 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.

[auto1-7] Michael Nienaber (29 May 2018), Germany's 'miserly' Scholz irks comrades at home and abroad Archived 29 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.

[8] CNN, Frederik Pleitgen, Salma Abdelaziz, Nadine Schmidt, Stephanie Halasz and Laura Smith-Spark. "SPD wins most seats in Germany's landmark election, preliminary official results show". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-27. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[:2-9] Bennhold, Katrin (8 December 2021). "Germany Live Updates: Parliament Approves Scholz as Chancellor, Ending Merkel Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 December 2021.

[10] "2G und Impfen: Das sind die neuen Maßnahmen" [2G and vaccination: these are the new measures]. ZDF (in German). 2 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[11] "Wegen Omikron: Bald auch strengere Corona-Regeln für Geimpfte" [Because of Omicron: Stricter corona rules soon also for vaccinated]. NDR (in German). 24 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[12] "Corona-Gipfel: Olaf Scholz will jetzt drastisch reagieren" [Corona Summit: Olaf Scholz wants to react dramatically]. T-Online (in German). 2 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[13] "Olaf Scholz für generelle Corona-Impfpflicht und 2G im Einzelhandel" [Olaf Scholz for general corona vaccinations and 2G in retail]. RND (in German). 30 November 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[14] "Nächster Corona-Hammer droht: Scholz will 2G-Pflicht beim Einkaufen" [Nearest Corona Hammer threatens: Scholz wants 2G duty when shopping]. Merkur.de (in German). 1 December 2021. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[15] Ildiko Röd (25 June 2018), Vizekanzler ist Neu-Potsdamer Archived 21 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Märkische Allgemeine.

[16] Forster, Joel (22 September 2021). "Germany election: Christians not exempt from falling into polarisation". Evangelical Focus. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.

[17] "Olaf Scholz: Darum verzichtet er beim Amtseid auf "So wahr mir Gott helfe"". Der Westen (in German). 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.

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