Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Steinmeier in 2024
President of Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 March 2017
Chancellor	Angela Merkel Olaf Scholz
Preceded by	Joachim Gauck
Vice Chancellor of Germany
In office 21 November 2007 – 27 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Franz Müntefering
Succeeded by	Guido Westerwelle
Minister of 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 Opposition
In office 28 October 2009 – 16 December 2013[a]
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Guido Westerwelle
Succeeded by	Gregor Gysi
Party political offices Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag In office 29 September 2009 – 16 December 2013[b] Chief Whip Thomas Oppermann Preceded by Peter Struck Succeeded by Thomas Oppermann Leader of the Social Democratic Party Acting 7 September 2008 – 18 October 2008 Deputy Andrea Nahles Peer Steinbrück Himself Preceded by Kurt Beck Succeeded by Franz Müntefering Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party In office 26 October 2007 – 13 November 2009 Leader Kurt Beck Himself (acting) Franz Müntefering Preceded by Bärbel Dieckmann Succeeded by Olaf Scholz
Political civil servant Head of the Chancellery In office 31 July 1999 – 22 November 2005 Chancellor Gerhard Schröder Preceded by Bodo Hombach Succeeded by Thomas de Maizière State Secretary at the Chancellery Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services In office 27 October 1998 – 22 November 2005 Chancellor Gerhard Schröder Preceded by Bernd Schmidbauer (as Minister of State) Succeeded by Thomas de Maizière Head of the State Chancellery of Lower Saxony In office 30 October 1996 – 27 October 1998 Minister-President Gerhard Schröder Preceded by Willi Waike Succeeded by Peter-Jürgen Steiner
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Bundestag for Brandenburg an der Havel – Potsdam-Mittelmark I – Havelland III – Teltow-Fläming I In office 27 October 2009 – 19 March 2017 Preceded by Margrit Spielmann Succeeded by Angelika Krüger-Leißner
Personal details
Born	(1956-01-05) 5 January 1956 (age 68) Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse	Elke Büdenbender ​ ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Giessen
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Bundeswehr
Years of service	1974–1976
Unit	German Air Force

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (German: [ˈfʁaŋkˌvaltɐ ˈʃtaɪnˌmaɪ.ɐ] ^ⓘ; born 5 January 1956)^[1] is a German politician who became the president of Germany on 19 March 2017.^[2] He was previously federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as vice chancellor of Germany from 2007 to 2009. Steinmeier 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 minister-president 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 for President of Germany of the governing coalition, consisting of his own party and the CDU/CSU, and thus became the presumptive electee, as the coalition held a large majority in the Federal Convention. He left the cabinet on 27 January 2017.^[3] He was elected president by the Federal Convention on 12 February 2017 with 74% of the vote. On 13 February 2022, he was re-elected by the Federal Convention for a second and final term with 78% of the vote.^[4]

Steinmeier belongs to the right wing of the SPD, known as reformists and moderates.^[5] As chief of staff, he was a principal architect of Agenda 2010, the Schröder government's reforms of the welfare state.^[6] His lenient policies toward countries such as Russia and China have earned him criticism both in Germany and internationally, and he has been criticized for prioritizing German business interests over human rights.^[7][8]

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