Peer Steinbrück

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 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.

After graduation Steinbrück worked for several German ministries and, from 1978 to 1981, in the office of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

In the 1980s, Steinbrück was the chief of staff to the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau.

He held positions in the Permanent Representative Office of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin from 1981 to 1985.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

In the 2009 federal election, SPD chancellor-candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier included Steinbrück as a member of his shadow cabinet.

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.

Steinbrück was a supporter of the so-called "Agenda 2010".

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.

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.

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.

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.