Olaf Scholz
Olaf Scholz was Chancellor of Germany from December 2021 to 2025 and led it through the collapse of its relationship with Russia. Born in Osnabrück in 1958 and raised near Hamburg in a textile-industry family, he joined the Social Democrats at seventeen, was a deputy leader of its youth wing, and trained as a labour lawyer. He entered the Bundestag in 1998, served as the party's general secretary — where his disciplined defence of Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010 reforms earned him the nickname Scholzomat — and was labour minister during the 2008 financial crisis, where the short-time work scheme he expanded kept German unemployment from rising. He was mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, and was criticised for the policing of the 2017 G20 summit and questioned over the Warburg Bank cum-ex tax affair, in which he has denied wrongdoing and said he does not recall key meetings. He was finance minister and vice-chancellor under Angela Merkel from 2018, and won the 2021 election narrowly, forming a three-party coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats. Three days after the Russian invasion in February 2022 he announced a Zeitenwende, a turning point: a hundred-billion-euro fund for the armed forces, a commitment to two per cent of GDP on defence, and arms deliveries to Ukraine, reversing decades of German policy. He also ended dependence on Russian gas within a year, building LNG terminals at unusual speed, and shut the last nuclear plants. He was criticised for hesitancy over specific weapons systems. The coalition collapsed in November 2024 over budget rules, and he lost the February 2025 election. He remained a member of the Bundestag after leaving office.
- Lived: 1958 CE – ?
- Nationality: German
- Roles: Chancellor of Germany (2021-2025)
