Early political career 2001–⁠2011

Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag
In office 27 October 2009 – 11 March 2011 Serving with Joachim Poß, Angelica Schwall-Düren, Elke Ferner, Ulrich Kelber, Gernot Erler, Florian Pronold, Dagmar Ziegler, Hubertus Heil, Axel Schäfer
Leader	Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Preceded by	Ludwig Stiegler Walter Kolbow Fritz Rudolf Körper Klaas Hübner Christel Humme
Succeeded by	Christine Lambrecht
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 the Bundestag
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

Parliamentary constituencies

Member of the Bundestag for Potsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 October 2021
Preceded by	Manja Schüle (2019)
Member of the Bundesrat for Hamburg
In office 7 March 2011 – 13 March 2018
Preceded by	Christoph Ahlhaus
Succeeded by	Peter Tschentscher
Member of the Hamburg Parliament
In office 2 March 2015 – 2 March 2015
Preceded by	Himself (2011)
Electoral list	Social Democratic Party
In office 7 March 2011 – 7 March 2011
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Andrea Rugbarth
Electoral list	Social Democratic Party
Member of the 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)
Deputy Member of the Bundesrat for Hamburg
In office 30 May 2001 – 31 October 2001
Appointed by	Ortwin Runde
Preceded by	Hartmuth Wrocklage
Succeeded by	Multi-member district

Personal details

Born

14 June 1958 (age 66)
Osnabrück, West Germany

Political party

Social Democratic
(since 1975)

Spouse

Britta Ernst

(m. 1998)

Residences

Old Market Square, Potsdam

Alma mater

University of Hamburg

Signature

Olaf Scholz ( born (1958-06-14)14 June 1958) is a German politician who has been the chancellor of Germany since 2021. He previously served as Vice Chancellor in the fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021. He was also First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019, and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009.

On 16 December 2024, Scholz lost a vote of confidence and in the following snap election on 23 February 2025, his SPD lost to Friedrich Merz's CDU, placing third, behind the AfD, and scoring the worst result in post-war history.

Early life and education
Career
- Chancellor of Germany (2021–2025)
Other activities
Personal life
Images for kids
See also

Early life and education

Scholz was born on 14 June 1958, in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, but grew up in Hamburg's Rahlstedt district. His parents worked in the textile industry. He has two younger brothers, Jens Scholz, an anesthesiologist and CEO of the University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein; and Ingo Scholz, a tech entrepreneur. Olaf Scholz attended the Bekassinenau elementary school in Oldenfelde but then switched to the Großlohering elementary school in Großlohe. After graduating from high school in 1977, he began studying law at the University of Hamburg in 1978 as part of a one-stage legal training course. He later found employment as a lawyer specialising in labour and employment law, working at the law firm Zimmermann, Scholz und Partner. Scholz joined the Social Democratic Party at the age of 17.

Scholz's family is traditionally Lutheran and he was baptized in the Evangelical Church in Germany; he holds largely secular views and left the Church in adulthood, but has called for appreciation of the country's Christian heritage and culture.

Career

Scholz at the Young Socialists Congress, 1984

Scholz in March 2011, on the government benches in the Hamburg Parliament, shortly after his election as First Mayor

Scholz and the spouses of the heads of state and government at the G20 in Hamburg, 2017

Scholz began his career as a lawyer specialising in labour and employment law. He became a member of the SPD in the 1970s and was a member of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2011. Scholz served in the Hamburg Government under First Mayor Ortwin Runde in 2001 and became General Secretary of the SPD in 2002, where he served alongside SPD leader and then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He became his party's Chief Whip in the Bundestag, later entering the First Merkel Government in 2007 as Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs. After the SPD moved into the opposition following the 2009 election, Scholz returned to lead the SPD in Hamburg. He was then elected Deputy Leader of the SPD. He led his party to victory in the 2011 Hamburg state election and became First Mayor, a position he held until 2018.

After the Social Democratic Party entered the fourth Merkel government in 2018, Scholz was appointed as both Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany. In 2020, he was nominated as the SPD's candidate for Chancellor of Germany for the 2021 federal election. The party won a plurality of seats in the Bundestag and formed a "traffic light coalition" with Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party. On 8 December 2021, Scholz was elected and sworn in as Chancellor by the Bundestag, succeeding Angela Merkel.

Chancellor of Germany (2021–2025)

Scholz meets President Biden in March 2023.

Scholz and Finnish Prime Minister Marin in 2022

Scholz was elected Chancellor by the Bundestag on 8 December 2021, with 395 votes in favour and 303 against. His new government was appointed on the same day by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. 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.

In December 2021, Scholz travelled to Warsaw for talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, where they discussed the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany and bypass Poland, and Poland's dispute with the European Union over the primacy of EU law. Scholz backed Poland's efforts to stop the flow of migrants seeking entry from Belarus.

Scholz extended into 2022 the suspension of the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The decision was made to "no longer approve any export sales to countries as long as they are directly involved" in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In September 2022, Scholz visited the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, seeking to deepen ties with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and find alternative sources of energy. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received Scholz in Jeddah. Scholz's government approved new arms export deals to Saudi Arabia, despite a ban imposed as a result of the Saudi war in Yemen.

Scholz called the US "Europe's closest and most important partner". Upon assuming the chancellorship in December 2021, he stated he would soon be meeting with President Joe Biden, saying: "It is now clear what binds us together."

On 22 February 2022, Scholz announced that Germany would be halting its approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in response to Russia's recognition of two self-declared separatist republics within Ukraine. Scholz spoke against allowing the EU to cut Russia off from the SWIFT global interbank payment system.

In an emergency meeting of the Bundestag on 27 February, Scholz made the Zeitenwende speech, announcing a complete reversal of German military and foreign policy, including the commencement of weapons shipments to Ukraine and a 100 billion euro increase in Germany's defense budget. One reporter called it a path to "an emergency military modernisation, defence spending, energy independence from Russia, lethal assistance for Ukraine and EU financing for weaponry". However, in a press conference on 19 April Scholz spoke about slowing Germany's provision of weaponry to Ukraine, which was seen as reducing the scale of the policy change.

In June 2022, Scholz said that his government remains committed to phasing out nuclear power despite rising energy prices and Germany's dependence on energy imports from Russia. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel committed Germany to a nuclear power phase-out after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

During the Israel–Hamas war, he authorized substantial German military and medical aid to Israel, and denounced the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.

Scholz was elected to the 21st Bundestag by winning his constituency through the first vote in the 2025 German federal election. He has said that he intends to take up his mandate.

Other activities

International organizations

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), ex-officio member of the board of governors (2018–2021)
European Investment Bank (EIB), ex-officio member of the board of governors (2018–2021)
European Stability Mechanism, member of the board of governors (2018–2021)
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), ex-officio member of the board of governors (2018–2021)
International Monetary Fund (IMF), ex-officio alternate member of the board of governors (2018–2021)

Corporate boards

KfW, ex-officio member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (2018–2021)
RAG-Stiftung, ex-officio member of the board of trustees (2018–2021)
HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, ex-officio chairman of the supervisory board (−2018)

Non-profits

Lebendige Stadt Foundation [Wikidata], member of the board of trustees (2009–2021)
Deutsche Nationalstiftung [Wikidata], member of the Senate
Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), member
German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), chairman of the Task Force on International Aviation Policy

Personal life

Olaf Scholz is married to fellow SPD politician Britta Ernst. The couple lived in Hamburg's Altona district before moving to Potsdam in 2018.

Scholz was raised in the Protestant Church in Germany and later left it. 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.

On 4 September 2023, Scholz announced that he would be wearing an eyepatch following a jogging accident.

Images for kids

Scholz speaking at the Global Citizen Festival 2017 in Hamburg
Scholz (SPD), Angela Merkel (CDU) and Horst Seehofer (CSU) presenting the 2018 coalition agreement for Germany's fourth Merkel cabinet
Scholz and US Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin in 2018
Scholz at an election campaign event]]
Scholz with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasília, Brazil on 30 January 2023
Scholz with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India on 25 February 2023
Scholz with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, 17 October 2023
Scholz at the NATO Summit in Vilnius on 12 July 2023
Scholz and Macron visit Kyiv on 16 June 2022
Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki in 2021
Scholz and Putin in Moscow on 15 February 2022