Chapter 04 — Political Journey
From Hanover to the heart of Berlin
Steinmeier's political career is unusual: he spent nearly two decades in the machinery of government before facing voters. Few German politicians have reached the top through the civil-service route he took.
Career progression
Milestones, 1975–2017
Joins the SPD
Becomes a member of the Social Democratic Party at the age of 19.
Lower Saxony
Adviser on media law and policy in the State Chancellery in Hanover.
Schröder's office
Head of the personal office of Minister-President Gerhard Schröder.
Head of State Chancellery
State Secretary and head of the Lower Saxony State Chancellery from 30 October 1996.
To Berlin
State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery and Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services.
Chief of Staff
Head of the Federal Chancellery from 31 July 1999 to 22 November 2005.
Agenda 2010
Coordinates the reform programme announced by Schröder in March 2003.
Foreign Minister
Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs in Merkel's first grand coalition.
Vice-Chancellor
Succeeds Franz Müntefering as Vice-Chancellor; becomes deputy SPD chairman.
Acting chairman
Leads the SPD on an interim basis after Kurt Beck's resignation, September–October 2008.
Chancellor candidate
Leads the SPD into the September election; elected to the Bundestag from Brandenburg.
Opposition leader
Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, 2009–2013.
Foreign Minister again
Returns to the Foreign Office in Merkel's third cabinet, 17 December 2013.
Federal President
Elected by the Federal Convention on 12 February 2017.
The Schröder years
The man behind the Chancellor
The partnership with Gerhard Schröder defined the first half of Steinmeier's career. In Hanover and then in Berlin, he was the chief of staff who turned political intention into government process. As Head of the Federal Chancellery from 1999 he coordinated the ministries, oversaw the intelligence services and served as the Chancellor's closest adviser.
His name is most closely associated with Agenda 2010, the programme of labour-market and welfare reforms announced by Schröder in the Bundestag on 14 March 2003. The reforms — including the Hartz laws that merged unemployment and social assistance benefits — split the SPD and contributed to the formation of a rival party on the left. Economists and commentators continue to debate how far they contributed to Germany's later labour-market recovery.
Candidate and opposition
Facing the voters
After four years as Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor under Angela Merkel, Steinmeier became the SPD's candidate for chancellor in 2009. The election of 27 September 2009 produced a heavy defeat: at 23.0 per cent, the SPD recorded what was then its worst result in a federal election since 1949. He nonetheless won a seat in the Bundestag for a Brandenburg constituency.
From 2009 to 2013 he led the SPD parliamentary group and thus the opposition to the CDU/CSU–FDP coalition. When the SPD returned to government after the 2013 election, he went back to the Foreign Office — the post from which he would be nominated, in 2016, as the grand coalition's joint candidate for Federal President.
Relationship with successive governments
| Period | Government | Steinmeier's role |
|---|---|---|
| 1998–2005 | Schröder I & II (SPD–Greens) | State Secretary, then Head of the Federal Chancellery |
| 2005–2009 | Merkel I (CDU/CSU–SPD) | Federal Foreign Minister; Vice-Chancellor from 2007 |
| 2009–2013 | Merkel II (CDU/CSU–FDP) | Leader of the opposition, SPD parliamentary group |
| 2013–2017 | Merkel III (CDU/CSU–SPD) | Federal Foreign Minister |
| 2017–2021 | Merkel III & IV | Federal President (non-partisan constitutional office) |
| 2021–2025 | Scholz (SPD–Greens–FDP) | Federal President |
| 2025– | Merz (CDU/CSU–SPD) | Federal President; appointed Friedrich Merz Chancellor on 6 May 2025 |