Frank Walter Steinmeier Popular Books

Frank Walter Steinmeier Biography & Facts

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (German: [ˈfʁaŋkˌvaltɐ ˈʃtaɪnˌmaɪ.ɐ] ; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who became president of Germany on 19 March 2017. He was previously federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as vice chancellor of Germany from 2007 to 2009. Steinmeier was chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2016. Steinmeier is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), holds a doctorate in law and was formerly a career civil servant. He was a close aide of Gerhard Schröder when Schröder was minister-president of Lower Saxony during most of the 1990s, and served as Schröder's chief of staff from 1996. When Schröder became Chancellor of Germany in 1998, Steinmeier was appointed Under-Secretary of State in the German Chancellery with the responsibility for the intelligence services. From 1999 to 2005 he served as Chief of Staff of the Chancellery. Following the 2005 federal election, Steinmeier became foreign minister in the first grand coalition government of Angela Merkel, and from 2007 he additionally held the office of vice chancellor. In 2008, he briefly served as acting chairman of his party. He was the SPD's candidate for chancellor in the 2009 federal election, but his party lost the election and he left the federal cabinet to become leader of the opposition. Following the 2013 federal election, he again became Minister for Foreign Affairs in Merkel's second grand coalition. In November 2016 he was announced as the candidate for President of Germany of the governing coalition, consisting of his own party and the CDU/CSU, and thus became the presumptive electee, as the coalition held a large majority in the Federal Convention. He left the cabinet on 27 January 2017. He was elected president by the Federal Convention on 12 February 2017 with 74% of the vote. On 13 February 2022, he was re-elected by the Federal Convention for a second and final term with 78% of the vote. Steinmeier belongs to the right wing of the SPD, known as reformists and moderates. As chief of staff, he was a principal architect of Agenda 2010, the Schröder government's reforms of the welfare state. His lenient policies toward countries such as Russia and China have earned him criticism both in Germany and internationally, and he has been criticized for prioritizing German business interests over human rights. Personal life Early life and education Steinmeier was born in 1956 in Detmold. Although his full name is Frank-Walter, his friends call him Frank. His father, a carpenter, was affiliated with the Church of Lippe (one of Germany's few Calvinist regional church bodies, and a member church of the Protestant Church of Germany). 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. 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 1982 he passed his first and in 1986 his second state examination in law. Steinmeier worked as a scientific assistant to the professor of public law and political science at Giessen University until he obtained his doctorate of law in 1991. His dissertation explored the state's role in preventing homelessness. Family life Steinmeier is married and has one daughter. On 24 August 2010, he donated a kidney to his wife Elke Büdenbender. In 2015, Steinmeier served as best man at the wedding of Rüdiger Grube and Cornelia Poletto in Hamburg. Interests Steinmeier enjoys jazz, and is an avid football fan. Religion Steinmeier is a Reformed Protestant and an active member of the Reformed Bethlehem congregation in Berlin-Neukölln. He was baptized into his father's church (the Church of Lippe) as a youth. Early career Steinmeier became an adviser in 1991 for Law of Communication media and media guidelines in the State Chancellery of Lower Saxony in Hanover. In 1993, he became director of the Personal Office for the prime minister of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder. In 1996, he became the Secretary of State and head of the State Chancellery of Lower Saxony. Political career on federal level Schröder Federal Chancellery, 1998–2005 Steinmeier was appointed in November 1998 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. He replaced Bodo Hombach as the head of the office of the chancellor in 1999, after the later entered European Union politics. He held onto his Secretary of State rank and therefore was the only Head of the Chancellery to not be appointed Minister for Special Affairs, i. e. does not have cabinet rank, from 1984 to today. During this period Steinmeier was also one of the advisors to Schröder. He was crucial in securing a red-green majority in parliament for Schröder's contentious "Agenda 2010" of economic reforms. Because of his effective management beyond the spotlight of politics, he was nicknamed Die Graue Effizienz (The Grey Efficiency) —a pun on Graue Eminenz, the German for éminence grise. As Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services (a title often held by the Head of the Chancellery) Steinmeier was responsible for co-ordinating Germany's intelligence services. In 2003, he supported Schröder in his controversial decision to forge a coalition with Russia and France against the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Meanwhile, he approved the decision to install a German intelligence officer in the Qatar-based office of General Tommy Franks, the American commander of the U.S. invasion in Iraq, who passed on to the United States information being gathered in Baghdad by two German intelligence officers operating there. In 2004, Steinmeier participated in diplomatic negotiations settling on compensation payments with Libya for victims of the 1986 terrorist bombing of the LaBelle disco in Berlin. A major controversy during Steinmeier's term as chief of staff was the imprisonment of a German-born Turk, Murat Kurnaz, in Guantánamo Bay from 2002 until August 2006. Steinmeier denied during a parliamentary inquiry in March 2007 that he had blocked Kurnaz's release. Instead, he claimed that Berlin had feared Kurnaz was a threat and should go to Turkey, not Germany, if released. Only after Merkel's election was Kurnaz released and brought back to Germany. First term as Foreign Minister, 2005–2009 On 22 November 2005, after the 2005 federal elections, Steinmeier became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Grand coalition cabinet led by Angela Merkel. He was the first SPD Foreign Minister since Willy Brandt (1966–1969). Upon taking office, Steinmeier led the preparations for Germany taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.... Discover the Frank Walter Steinmeier popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Frank Walter Steinmeier books.