Peer Steinbrück facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peer Steinbrück
Steinbrück in 2013
Minister of Finance
In office 22 November 2005 – 28 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Hans Eichel
Succeeded by	Wolfgang Schäuble
Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 6 November 2002 – 22 June 2005
Deputy	Michael Vesper
Preceded by	Wolfgang Clement
Succeeded by	Jürgen Rüttgers
Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office 15 November 2005 – 29 September 2009
Leader	Matthias Platzeck Kurt Beck Frank-Walter Steinmeier (acting) Franz Müntefering
Preceded by	Wolfgang Thierse
Succeeded by	Manuela Schwesig
Minister of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 22 February 2000 – 12 November 2002
Minister-President	Wolfgang Clement
Preceded by	Heinz Schleußer
Succeeded by	Jochen Dieckmann
Minister of Economy and medium-sized Businesses, Technology and Transportation of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 28 October 1998 – 22 February 2000
Minister-President	Wolfgang Clement
Preceded by	Bodo Hombach
Succeeded by	Ernst Schwanhold
Minister of Economy, Technology and Transportation of Schleswig-Holstein
In office 19 May 1993 – 28 October 1998
Minister-President	Heide Simonis
Preceded by	Uwe Thomas
Succeeded by	Horst Günter Bülck
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia In office 27 October 2009 – 30 September 2016 Preceded by Rudolf Meyer Succeeded by Bettina Bähr-Losse Constituency Social Democratic List Member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia for Unna III – Hamm II (Unna II; 2000–2005) In office 1 June 2000 – 21 November 2005 Preceded by Wolfram Kuschke (1998) Succeeded by Gerd Stüttgen
Personal details
Born	(1947-01-10) 10 January 1947 (age 78) Hamburg, Allied-occupied Germany (now Germany)
Political party	Social Democratic
Alma mater	University of Kiel
Occupation	Politician Consultant Political Staffer
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Germany
Branch/service	Bundeswehr
Years of service	1968–1970
Rank	Leutnant
Unit	Army (Heer) / Panzergrenadierbrigade 31

Peer Steinbrück (born 10 January 1947) is a German politician who was the Chancellor-candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the 2013 federal election. Steinbrück served as the eighth Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2002 to 2005, a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2016, and as Federal Minister of Finance in the first Cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2009.

A graduate of the University of Kiel, Steinbrück began his political career in the office of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and became chief of staff to Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau, in 1986. Steinbrück served as a state minister in both Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia and succeeded Wolfgang Clement as Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2002. Governing in an SPD-Green coalition, Steinbrück's tenure was noted for its attempt to reduce tax breaks and coal subsidies. In the 2005 state election, Steinbrück's SPD lost to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition led by Jürgen Rüttgers, thus marking the end of Steinbrück's tenure as Minister-President.

After the 2005 federal election, which resulted in a Grand Coalition government under the leadership of new Chancellor Angela Merkel of the CDU, Steinbrück was appointed Minister of Finance. In this position, Steinbrück was charged with reducing Germany's budget deficit, curbing public debt, and introducing changes in the taxation system. In the 2009 federal election, SPD chancellor-candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier included Steinbrück as a member of his shadow cabinet.

In 2012, the National Assembly of the SPD elected Steinbrück as the chancellor-candidate of the SPD for the 2013 federal election. After he was nominated, controversy surrounding Steinbrück history of giving paid speeches to private banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, as well as the potential conflict of interest surrounding his seat on the board of steel conglomerate Thyssenkrupp, prompted criticism from both centre-right members of Angela Merkel's coalition as well as members of SPD's left-wing. Steinbrück's gaffe-prone campaign failed to gain traction, and the SPD was defeated by Merkel's CDU in the federal election which took place on 22 September 2013.

Early life and education

Steinbrück was born in Hamburg, on 10 January 1947, to Ilse (née Schaper; 1919–2011) and Ernst Steinbrück (1914–1998), an architect born in Danzig. After having been trained as an officer of the reserve of the Bundeswehr, Steinbrück studied economics at the University of Kiel. He graduated in 1974.

Career

Early career, 1974–2002

After graduation Steinbrück worked for several German ministries and, from 1978 to 1981, in the office of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. He held positions in the Permanent Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin from 1981 to 1985. In the 1980s, Steinbrück was the chief of staff to the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau.

In 1993, he became the State Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. He then returned to North Rhine-Westphalia, where he became the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in 1998 and Finance Minister in 2000.

Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, 2002–2005

From 2002 to 2005 Steinbrück served as the eighth Minister President (Ministerpräsident or governor) of North Rhine-Westphalia. He headed a coalition government between the SPD and the Green Party.

In December 2002, Steinbrück accompanied Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on a visit to China for meetings with President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji.

In 2003, Steinbrück and Roland Koch, the Christian Democrat premier of Hesse, together drew up a plan to reduce tax breaks and subsidies, including those on coal. The subsidies were a particularly sensitive issue in North Rhine-Westphalia, where most of the coal mines were located then. Nevertheless, Steinbrück and Koch agreed that all subsidies were to be reduced by 12 percent over several years. Steinbrück was a supporter of the so-called "Agenda 2010".

In the state election on 22 May 2005, Steinbrück's SPD lost to the Christian democratic (CDU) opposition. This loss also had consequences for federal politics: then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who already was enfeebled by weak opinion polls and criticism within his own party, announced plans to call an early federal election for the Bundestag. This resulted in the 2005 federal election four months later, after which Angela Merkel became Chancellor for the first time.

Federal Minister of Finance, 2005–2009

Steinbrück in 2008

After the 2005 federal election, SPD and CDU formed a Grand Coalition under the leadership of new Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Peer Steinbrück became finance minister of Germany in November 2005. He was charged with reducing Germany's budget deficit, curbing public debt and introducing changes in the taxation system. Following his initiative, Germany introduced a flat rate withholding tax of 25 percent on private income from capital and capital gains, with the aim of preventing tax evasion. He oversaw and orchestrated the regulatory and fiscal efforts to counter the largest financial and economic crisis in post-War history.

From 2005, Steinbrück also served as deputy chairman of the SPD. Ahead of the 2009 elections, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier included Steinbrück in his shadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats’ campaign to unseat incumbent Angela Merkel as chancellor.

In a joint article in the Financial Times on 14 December 2010, Steinbrück and Steinmeier proposed to solve the European debt crisis with "a combination of a haircut for debt holders, debt guarantees for stable countries and the limited introduction of European-wide bonds in the medium term, accompanied by more aligned fiscal policies." In February 2011, Steinmeier proposed Steinbrück as a candidate to lead the European Central Bank.

Candidate for Federal Chancellor, 2012–2013

On 9 December 2012 an extraordinary National Assembly of the SPD elected Steinbrück, with 93.45 percent of the votes, as candidate for Federal Chancellor, to run in the 2013 federal elections against Angela Merkel. Sigmar Gabriel, the party's chairman at the time, who had also been considered a possible candidate, said the leadership had agreed to nominate Steinbrück after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the party's parliamentary leader, withdrew from the contest.

During his election campaign, Steinbrück promised to introduce rent controls, to raise taxes and use those funds for education and infrastructure. He also accused Merkel of showing a lack of passion for Europe in the euro crisis because she was brought up in communist East Germany. In the run-up to the elections, he criticized Merkel's support for hardline austerity measures in indebted eurozone countries and reiterated his support for the euro, saying that its demise would "throw back European unification by 20 to 30 years" and result in currency appreciation that would "destroy any business." He also travelled to Greece for meetings with President Karolos Papoulias, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and PASOK chairman Evangelos Venizelos.

On foreign policy issues, Steinbrück criticized Merkel for not joining Germany's allies in their military efforts against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Also, he promised he would radically curtail German arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia.

In three stages from mid-May 2013, Steinbrück announced the twelve members of his shadow cabinet, including Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, Gesche Joost, Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Christiane Krajewski, Karl Lauterbach, Matthias Machnig, Thomas Oppermann, Florian Pronold, Oliver Scheytt, Klaus Wiesehügel, Manuela Schwesig and Brigitte Zypries. He signalled his support for Jürgen Trittin, at the time co-chairman of the Green Party’s parliamentary group, to become minister of finance in the case of his win.

Although Steinbrück soon won the endorsement of former Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Schmidt, his gaffe-prone campaign never gained traction against the popular Merkel. His previously established reputation as a crisis manager who had played a frontline role in fighting the global financial crisis was overshadowed by faux pas throughout the campaign. He clashed with Sigmar Gabriel, the party leader, whom Steinbrück said had not been supportive of his campaign.

On 22 September, Steinbrück's Social Democrats won 25.7 percent, while Merkel's CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU together won 41.5 percent of the vote. Following the elections, Steinbrück was part of the SPD delegation to hold exploratory talks with the CDU/CSU on forming a coalition government.

Member of the Bundestag, 2013–2016

As member of parliament, Steinbrück served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and as chairman of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2013 until 2016.

In March 2015, Steinbrück joined the Agency for Modernization of Ukraine, an initiative led by Dmitry Firtash to develop a comprehensive plan of political and economic reforms in the country.

In September 2015, Steinbrück announced that he would not stand in the 2017 federal elections. He vacated his Bundestag seat in the end of September 2016.

In 2018, he wrote a book titled Das Elend der Sozial-demokratie. Anmerkungen eines Genossen., which explored the reasons why the SPD always lost elections from an insider's perspective.

Political positions

Economic policy

Steinbrück has been a prominent speaker for the SPD, especially on economic matters.

During a 2007 visit to Washington for meetings with the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, after the collapse of Amaranth Advisors, Steinbrück lobbied for the development of an internationally accepted "code of conduct" for the hedge fund industry, arguing that a "sizable number" of hedge funds "are not behaving properly."

Steinbrück predicted in 2008, in the wake of Lehman Brothers’s bankruptcy, that the United States’ days as a financial superpower were numbered. In December 2008 interview with Newsweek, he controversially attacked the British Keynesian approach to economic policy. He raised scepticism about the effectiveness of large fiscal stimulus packages and criticized the resulting increase in public debt. His comments led Steinbrück into a highly public press battle with Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economist and New York Times columnist. An adherent to Keynes' theory that government spending creates growth, Krugman wrote in December 2008—in a direct attack on Steinbrück—that the primary "multiplier effect" that government spending programs were having was that of "multiplying the impact of the current German government's boneheadedness."

During his time as German Finance Minister, Steinbrück repeatedly accused the United Kingdom of pandering to the City of London by hindering efforts to reform global financial markets. In 2009, Steinbrück opposed any plans by the G-20 major economies to limit the size of banks to avoid individual institutions wielding too much influence in future and posing a risk. At the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit, he supported a Dutch proposal to limit banking executives' bonuses to the level of their fixed annual salary. Also, he called for a global tax to be imposed on financial transactions in a bid to end what he derided as "binge-drinking" on markets.

In a 2010 interview on German television, it appeared that Steinbrück, who had adopted a very critical stance of the shadow banking system, attributed characteristics of the private equity industry to hedge funds.

In 2012, Steinbrück tabled a plan for sweeping financial regulation that he intended to be a main plank of his election platform. It included compelling banks to finance a €200 billion rescue fund, and splitting investment from retail banking.

European integration

At the 2006 meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Singapore, Steinbrück argued that, as the world's third largest economy after the US and Japan, Germany must keep its influence in the IMF amid wide-ranging reform of the institution, ruling out suggestions that the Eurozone members should have only one seat on the board as part of the planned overhaul of IMF members' votes.

Other activities

Corporate boards

• Borussia Dortmund, Member of the Supervisory Board
• ING Group, Advisor to the Board of Directors of ING-DiBa
• ThyssenKrupp, Member of the Supervisory Board (2010–2012)
• KfW, Member of the supervisory board (2006–2009)

Non-profit organizations

• Berlin Palace–Humboldtforum Foundation, deputy chairman of the Board of Trustees
• Deutsche Nationalstiftung, Member of the Senate
• Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, chairman
• Helmut and Loki Schmidt Foundation, deputy chairman
• ZEIT-Stiftung, member of the Board of Trustees
• IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (IG BCE), member

Recognition

• 2011 – University of Düsseldorf, Honorary Doctorate
• 2011 – Steinbrück was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the Universität Essen-Duisburg's NRW School of Governance

Personal life

Steinbrück's wife, Gertrud (born 1950), is a former biology and politics teacher at a high school in Bonn. They have three children.

See also

In Spanish: Peer Steinbrück para niños