Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Biography

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was born in Detmold in 1956. After military service in the Bundeswehr he studied law and political science at the University of Giessen. He earned a doctorate in law and became a career civil servant.

He was a close aide to Gerhard Schröder in Lower Saxony and headed the state chancellery from 1996. When Schröder became federal chancellor in 1998 he made Steinmeier state secretary in the Chancellery, responsible for the intelligence services, and in 1999 its chief of staff. In that post he was a principal architect of the Agenda 2010 welfare and labour reforms.

In Angela Merkel's first grand coalition he was foreign minister from 2005, and vice-chancellor from 2007. He briefly led the SPD in 2008 and was its candidate for chancellor in 2009; after the party's defeat he led the opposition in the Bundestag. He returned as foreign minister in 2013, took part in the Normandy-format talks on eastern Ukraine, and chaired the OSCE in 2016.

The Federal Convention elected him President of Germany in February 2017 and re-elected him in 2022. His earlier conciliatory approach to Russia and China has drawn criticism at home and abroad.