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| Order: | 33rd Chancellor of Germany (7th of the Federal Republic) |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | October 27, 1998– |
| Predecessor: | Helmut Kohl |
| Date of Birth: | April 7, 1944 |
| Political Party: | SPD |
| Profession: | lawyer |
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder [ˌgeːɐhaːɐt ˈʃrøːdɐ] (born April 7, 1944), a German politician, has been serving since 1998 as Chancellor of Germany. His political career has unfolded within the left-of-center Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) - for a time he also served as Party Chairman. He heads a coalition of the SPD and the German Green Party. Before becoming a fulltime politician, he was a lawyer.
(His surname often appears spelled Schroeder in EnglishThe English language is a West Germanic language, originating from England. It is the third most common "first" language (native speakers), with around 402 million people in 2002. English has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the mil, in accordance with the standard conversion of umlautThe term umlaut is used for two closely related notions: a special kind of vowel modification and a particular diacritic mark. Vowel modification In linguistics, the process of umlaut (from German um "around", "transformation" + laut "sound") is a modifics.)
Schröder joined the Social Democratic Party in 1963Events January-March January 11 The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened. January 14 George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. January 22 Elysee treaty between France and Germany January 28 Black student Harvey. In 1978Events January January 1 The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. January 1 Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay 213 dead. January 4 Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet. he became the federal chairman of the Young Socialists, the youth organisation of the SPD. In 1980 he was elected to the German Bundestag, and stood out provocatively as a young parliamentarian who wore a sweater to work instead of the traditional suit-and-tie. He became chairman of the SPD Hanover district. 1986 saw his election to the regional parliament of Lower Saxony as leader of the SPD faction. At the same time, he became a member of the board of the federal SPD. He became Chancellor ( Bundeskanzler) on October 27, 1998 after having won elections in Lower Saxony for the third time in March that year and serving as Ministerpräsident there since 1990. In the general elections on September 22, 2002, he secured another four-year term, thanks to the victory of his governing Red- Green coalition.
After the resignation of Oskar Lafontaine from his office as SPD chairman in March, 1999, Schröder held that office as well. In February, 2004, he resigned as chairman of the SPD to concentrate, as Chancellor, on German reform processes. ( Franz Müntefering succeeded him as chairman.) Speculation suggests that the SPD's historical low level of popularity in opinion polls provides one reason for his resignation as chairman.