Frank-Walter Steinmeier | |
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Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 17 December 2013 – 27 January 2017 |
|
Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
Preceded by | Guido Westerwelle |
Succeeded by | Sigmar Gabriel |
In office 22 November 2005 – 27 October 2009 |
|
Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
Preceded by | Joschka Fischer |
Succeeded by | Guido Westerwelle |
Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag | |
In office 27 October 2009 – 16 December 2013 |
|
Preceded by | Peter Struck |
Succeeded by | Thomas Oppermann |
Vice Chancellor of Germany | |
In office 21 November 2007 – 27 October 2009 |
|
Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
Preceded by | Franz Müntefering |
Succeeded by | Guido Westerwelle |
Chief of Staff of the Chancellery | |
In office 31 July 1999 – 22 November 2005 |
|
Chancellor | Gerhard Schröder |
Preceded by | Bodo Hombach |
Succeeded by | Thomas de Maizière |
Chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe | |
In office 1 January 2016 – 1 January 2017 |
|
Preceded by | Ivica Dačić |
Succeeded by | Sebastian Kurz |
Personal details | |
Born |
Detmold, West Germany (now Germany) |
5 January 1956
Political party | Social Democratic Party |
Alma mater | University of Giessen |
Signature |
Frank-Walter Steinmeier ([ˈfʁaŋkˌvaltɐ ˈʃtaɪ̯nˌmaɪ̯.ɐ]; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, and as Vice Chancellor from 2007 to 2009. He 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 Prime Minister 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 of the governing coalition consisting of his own party and the CDU/CSU for President of Germany, and thus became the presumptive elect as the coalition holds a large majority in the Federal Convention; he left the cabinet on 27 January 2017.