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Peer Steinbrück | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Steinbrück in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Finance | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 22 November 2005 – 28 October 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Hans Eichel | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Wolfgang Schäuble | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 6 November 2002 – 22 June 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Michael Vesper | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Wolfgang Clement | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jürgen Rüttgers | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy Leader of theSocial Democratic Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 15 November 2005 – 29 September 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Wolfgang Thierse | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Manuela Schwesig | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Finance ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 22 February 2000 – 12 November 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President | Wolfgang Clement | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Heinz Schleußer | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jochen Dieckmann | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Economy and medium-sized Businesses, Technology and Transportation ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 October 1998 – 22 February 2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President | Wolfgang Clement | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Bodo Hombach | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ernst Schwanhold | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Economy, Technology and Transportation ofSchleswig-Holstein | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 19 May 1993 – 28 October 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President | Heide Simonis | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Uwe Thomas | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Horst Günter Bülck | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1947-01-10)10 January 1947 (age 78) Hamburg,Allied-occupied Germany (now Germany) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Social Democratic | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Kiel | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance | Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service | Bundeswehr | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1968–1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Leutnant | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unit |  Army (Heer) /Panzergrenadierbrigade 31 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Peer Steinbrück (born 10 January 1947) is a German politician who was theChancellor-candidate of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) in the2013 federal election.[1] Steinbrück served as the eighthMinister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2002 to 2005,[2] a member of theBundestag from 2009 to 2016, and asFederal Minister of Finance in thefirst Cabinet ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2005 to 2009.[3]
A graduate of theUniversity of Kiel, Steinbrück began his political career in the office of ChancellorHelmut Schmidt and became chief of staff to Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia,Johannes Rau, in 1986. Steinbrück served as a state minister in bothSchleswig-Holstein andNorth Rhine-Westphalia and succeededWolfgang Clement as Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2002. Governing in an SPD-Green coalition,[4] Steinbrück's tenure was noted for its attempt to reduce tax breaks and coal subsidies.[5] In the2005 state election, Steinbrück's SPD lost to theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition led byJürgen Rüttgers, thus marking the end of Steinbrück's tenure as Minister-President.
After the2005 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.[5] In the2009 federal election, SPD chancellor-candidateFrank-Walter Steinmeier included Steinbrück as a member of hisshadow cabinet.
In 2012, the National Assembly of the SPD elected Steinbrück as the chancellor-candidate of the SPD for the2013 federal election. After he was nominated, controversy surrounding Steinbrück history of giving paid speeches to private banks such asJPMorgan Chase andDeutsche Bank,[6] as well as the potential conflict of interest surrounding his seat on the board of steel conglomerateThyssenKrupp,[7] prompted criticism from both centre-right members of Angela Merkel's coalition as well as members of SPD's left-wing. Steinbrück's gaffe-prone campaign failed to gain traction,[8] and the SPD was defeated by Merkel's CDU in the federal election which took place on 22 September 2013.
Steinbrück was born inHamburg, on 10 January 1947, to Ilse (née Schaper; 1919–2011) and Ernst Steinbrück (1914–1998), an architect born inDanzig. After having been trained as anofficer of thereserve of theBundeswehr, Steinbrück studiedeconomics atthe University of Kiel. He graduated in 1974.
After graduation Steinbrück worked for several German ministries and, from 1978 to 1981, in the office ofGerman ChancellorHelmut Schmidt. He held positions in the Permanent Representative Office of theFederal Republic of Germany in East Berlin from 1981 to 1985. In the 1980s, Steinbrück was the chief of staff to theMinister President ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia,Johannes Rau.
In 1993, he became the State Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in the state ofSchleswig-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.
From 2002 to 2005 Steinbrück served as the eighthMinister President (Ministerpräsident or governor) ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[2] He headed a coalition government between the SPD and theGreen Party.[4]
In December 2002, Steinbrück accompaniedChancellorGerhard Schröder on a visit to China for meetings withPresident of the People's Republic of ChinaJiang Zemin andPremierZhu Rongji.[9]
In 2003, Steinbrück andRoland Koch, the Christian Democrat premier of Hesse, together drew up a plan to reducetax breaks andsubsidies, including those on coal. The subsidies were a particularly sensitive issue in North Rhine-Westphalia, where most ofthe coal mines were located then. Nevertheless, Steinbrück and Koch agreed that all subsidies were to be reduced by 12 percent over several years.[5] Steinbrück was a supporter of the so-called "Agenda 2010".[10]
In thestate election on 22 May 2005, Steinbrück's SPD lost to theChristian democratic (CDU) opposition. This loss also had consequences for federal politics: then German ChancellorGerhard Schröder, who already was enfeebled by weak opinion polls and criticism within his own party, announced plans to call an early federal election for theBundestag. This resulted in the2005 federal election four months later, after whichAngela Merkel became Chancellor for thefirst time.
After the2005 federal election, SPD and CDU formed aGrand Coalition under the leadership of new ChancellorAngela Merkel (CDU). Peer Steinbrück became finance minister of Germany in November 2005.[3] He was charged with reducing Germany'sbudget deficit, curbingpublic debt and introducing changes in the taxation system.[5] 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.[11] 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 theSPD. Ahead of the2009 elections, German foreign ministerFrank-Walter Steinmeier included Steinbrück in hisshadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats’ campaign to unseat incumbentAngela Merkel as chancellor.[12]
In a joint article in theFinancial Times on 14 December 2010, Steinbrück and Steinmeier proposed to solve theEuropean 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."[13] In February 2011, Steinmeier proposed Steinbrück as a candidate to lead theEuropean Central Bank.[14]
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 the2013 federal elections againstAngela Merkel.Sigmar Gabriel, the party's chairman at the time, who had also been considered a possible candidate, said the leadership had agreed to nominate Steinbrück afterFrank-Walter Steinmeier, the party's parliamentary leader, withdrew from the contest.[15]
During his election campaign, Steinbrück promised to introducerent controls, to raise taxes and use those funds for education and infrastructure.[16] He also accused Merkel of showing a lack of passion for Europe in theeuro area crisis because she was brought up in communist East Germany.[17] In the run-up to the elections, he criticized Merkel's support for hardline austerity measures in indebted eurozone countries[18] and reiterated his support for the euro, saying that its demise would "throw back European unification by 20 to 30 years" and result in currency appreciation that would "destroy any business."[19] He also travelled to Greece for meetings withPresidentKarolos Papoulias,Prime MinisterAntonis Samaras,Finance MinisterYannis Stournaras andPASOK chairmanEvangelos Venizelos.
On foreign policy issues, Steinbrück criticized Merkel for not joining Germany's allies in their military efforts against Libyan dictatorMuammar Gaddafi. Also, he promised he would radically curtail German arms exports to countries such asSaudi Arabia.[20]
In three stages from mid-May 2013, Steinbrück announced the twelve members of hisshadow cabinet, includingCornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel,Gesche Joost,Yasemin Karakaşoğlu,Christiane Krajewski,Karl Lauterbach,Matthias Machnig,Thomas Oppermann,Florian Pronold,Oliver Scheytt,Klaus Wiesehügel,Manuela Schwesig andBrigitte Zypries. He signalled his support forJürgen Trittin, at the time co-chairman of theGreen Party’sparliamentary group, to become minister of finance in the case of his win.[21]
Although Steinbrück soon won the endorsement of former ChancellorsGerhard Schröder andHelmut Schmidt,[15] his gaffe-prone campaign never gained traction against the popular Merkel.[22] His previously established reputation as a crisis manager who had played a frontline role during the2008 financial crisis was overshadowed by faux pas throughout the campaign.[23] He clashed withSigmar Gabriel, the party leader, whom Steinbrück said had not been supportive of his campaign.[18]
On 22 September, Steinbrück's Social Democrats won 25.7 percent, while Merkel's CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU together won 41.5 percent of the vote.[24] Following the elections, Steinbrück was part of the SPD delegation to hold exploratory talks with the CDU/CSU on forming a coalition government.[25]
As member of parliament, Steinbrück served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and as chairman of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2013 until 2016.
In March 2015, Steinbrück joined theAgency for Modernization of Ukraine, an initiative led byDmitry Firtash to develop a comprehensive plan of political and economic reforms in the country.[26]
In September 2015, Steinbrück announced that he would not stand in the2017 federal elections.[27] He vacated hisBundestag seat in the end of September 2016.[28]
In 2018, he wrote a book titledDas Elend der Sozial-demokratie. Anmerkungen eines Genossen., which explored the reasons why the SPD always lost elections from an insider's perspective.[29]
Steinbrück has been a prominent speaker for the SPD, especially on economic matters.
During a 2007 visit to Washington for meetings with the Treasury secretary,Henry M. Paulson Jr. andBen S. Bernanke, chairman of theFederal Reserve, after the collapse ofAmaranth Advisors, Steinbrück lobbied for the development of an internationally accepted "code of conduct" for the hedge fund industry, arguing that a "sizable number" of hedge funds "are not behaving properly."[30]
Steinbrück predicted in 2008, in the wake ofLehman Brothers’s bankruptcy, that the United States’ days as a financial superpower were numbered.[15] In December 2008 interview withNewsweek, he controversially attacked the BritishKeynesian approach to economic policy.[31][32] He raised scepticism about the effectiveness of largefiscal stimulus packages and criticized the resulting increase in public debt. His comments led Steinbrück into a highly public press battle withPaul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economist andNew York Times columnist.[33] An adherent to Keynes' theory that government spending creates growth, Krugman wrote in December 2008—in a direct attack on Steinbrück—that the primary "multiplier effect" that government spending programs were having was that of "multiplying the impact of the current German government's boneheadedness."[34]
During his time as German Finance Minister, Steinbrück repeatedly accused the United Kingdom of pandering to theCity of London by hindering efforts to reform global financial markets.[35] In 2009, Steinbrück opposed any plans by theG-20 major economies to limit the size of banks to avoid individual institutions wielding too much influence in future and posing a risk.[36] At the2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit, he supported a Dutch proposal to limit banking executives' bonuses to the level of their fixed annual salary.[37][38] Also, he called for a global tax to be imposed on financial transactions in a bid to end what he derided as "binge-drinking" on markets.[39]
In a 2010 interview on German television, it appeared that Steinbrück, who had adopted a very critical stance of theshadow banking system, attributed characteristics of theprivate equity industry tohedge funds.[40]
In 2012, Steinbrück tabled a plan for sweeping financial regulation that he intended to be a main plank of his election platform. It included compelling banks to finance a €200 billion rescue fund, and splitting investment from retail banking.[41]
At the 2006 meetings of theIMF and theWorld Bank inSingapore, Steinbrück argued that, as the world's third largest economy after the US and Japan, Germany must keep its influence in the IMF amid wide-ranging reform of the institution, ruling out suggestions that theEurozone members should have only one seat on the board as part of the planned overhaul of IMF members' votes.[42]
Steinbrück has been labelled by the media as a sharp-witted political pugilist whose frank opinions have occasionally attracted controversy.[47]
As soon as he was nominated as the Social Democrat's challenger to German ChancellorAngela Merkel in the2013 federal elections, Steinbrueck announced he would quit the board of steel conglomerateThyssenKrupp and all outside work, though not an unpaid seat on soccer clubBorussia Dortmund's board where he saw noconflict of interest.[7] His decision prompted a slew of criticism of his high earnings outside the Bundestag from Merkel's center-right coalition but also from the SPD's left wing and from anti-graft campaigners. The seat on ThyssenKrupp's board and all but four of the other 85 appointments and engagements listed for the time between 2009 and 2012 were in excess of 560,000 euros.[7]
Later in his campaign, Steinbrück canceled a speech atBank Sarasin & Cie afterSüddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Swiss private bank was being investigated by German prosecutors for possibletax evasion.[23] Soon after, he declared he had earned 1.25 million euros ($1.6 million) by giving 89 speeches between 2009 and 2012 at companies and banks includingDeutsche Bank,JPMorgan Chase,BNP Paribas,Sal. Oppenheim,Union Investment,Ernst & Young,Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer andBaker & McKenzie.[23] This sum was in addition to his salary as a member of parliament, which was over 7,500 euros a month.[6] The data also showed Steinbrück gave 237 other addresses for free to schools and charities, and got industry lobby groups to donate to charity instead of paying him.[6] At the same time, he said the chancellor's salary, at about 250,000 euros annually, is too low because regional savings bank directors are paid more.[48]
In April 2007, when Germany held the presidencies of both theEuropean Union and theG7, Steinbrück was criticized for going on holiday with his family inNamibia instead of attending a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Washington and for refusing the offer of other G7 members to succeedGordon Brown as chair of theInternational Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC).[49]
As finance minister, Steinbrück criticized Germany's neighbours in a row overtax havens.[50]
In the wake of German investigations against theLGT Group of Liechtenstein in 2008, Steinbrück threatened that Germany would impose a levy on all fund transfers to the principality, in effect reinstating pre-1990s-style capital controls, if the country did not change its ways.[51] Speaking to reporters in Paris after a conference on measures to combattax avoidance, he said Switzerland deserved to be on a tax haven "black list" being drawn up by theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development because Swiss investment conditions encouraged some German taxpayers to commit fraud.[52] He called on other European countries to "use the whip" on Switzerland over its tax havens, likening the Swiss to "Indians" running scared from thecavalry.[53]
His criticism of theSwiss banking secrecy caused some tensions between Germany and Switzerland.[54] The German ambassador to Bern was summoned to the foreign ministry to hear Switzerland's official reaction to what Foreign MinisterMicheline Calmy-Rey described as Steinbrück's "contemptuous and aggressive" comments.[55]
On 26 February 2013 Steinbrück said he was "appalled that two clowns have won" Italy's24–25 February election. The vote was actually inconclusive with no party garnering a majority in parliament, although the anti-establishment party of commentator and comedianBeppe Grillo surged to about one fourth of valid votes. In reaction, Italian PresidentGiorgio Napolitano cancelled a dinner in Berlin with Steinbrück, who was German opposition's chancellor candidate.[56][57]
In May 2021, Danish state broadcasterDR reported that theU.S. National Security Agency (NSA) used a partnership with theDanish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) to spy on Steinbrück and other senior officials in Germany, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.[58]
Steinbrück's wife, Gertrud (born 1950), is a former biology and politics teacher at a high school in Bonn. They have three children.[18]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Economy ofSchleswig-Holstein 1993–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Economy ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia 1998–2000 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia 2000–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia 2002–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Federal Minister of Finance 2005–2009 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
