Olaf Scholz - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olaf Scholz MdB
Scholz in 2024
Chancellor of Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 December 2021
President	Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Vice Chancellor	Robert Habeck
Preceded by	Angela Merkel
Vice Chancellor of Germany
In office 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Sigmar Gabriel
Succeeded by	Robert Habeck
Federal Minister of Finance
In office 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Wolfgang Schäuble
Succeeded by	Christian Lindner
First Mayor of Hamburg
In office 7 March 2011 – 13 March 2018
Second Mayor	Dorothee Stapelfeldt Katharina Fegebank
Preceded by	Christoph Ahlhaus
Succeeded by	Peter Tschentscher
Early political career 2001–2009 Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs In office 21 November 2007 – 27 October 2009 Chancellor Angela Merkel Preceded by Franz Müntefering Succeeded by Franz Josef Jung Chief Whip of the Social Democratic Party In office 13 October 2005 – 21 November 2007 Leader Peter Struck Preceded by Wilhelm Schmidt Succeeded by Thomas Oppermann General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party In office 20 October 2002 – 21 March 2004 Leader Gerhard Schröder Preceded by Franz Müntefering Succeeded by Klaus Uwe Benneter Senator for the Interior of Hamburg In office 30 May 2001 – 31 October 2001 First Mayor Ortwin Runde Preceded by Hartmuth Wrocklage Succeeded by Ronald Schill
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the German Bundestag for Potsdam – Potsdam-Mittelmark II – Teltow-Fläming II Incumbent Assumed office 26 October 2021 Preceded by Manja Schüle (2019) Member of the German Bundestag for Hamburg Altona In office 17 October 2002 – 11 March 2011 Preceded by Himself (2001) Succeeded by Ingo Egloff In office 26 October 1998 – 6 June 2001 Preceded by Marliese Dobberthien Succeeded by Himself (2002) Constituency Hamburg Altona Member of the Hamburg Parliament In office 2 March 2015 – 2 March 2015 Preceded by Himself (2011) Constituency Social Democratic list In office 7 March 2011 – 7 March 2011 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Andrea Rugbarth Constituency Social Democratic list
Personal details
Born	(1958-06-14) 14 June 1958 (age 66) Osnabrück, West Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Britta Ernst ​ (m. 1998)​
Residence	Old Market Square, Potsdam
Alma mater	University of Hamburg
Occupation	Politician lawyer cooperative syndic
Signature
Website	olaf-scholz.spd.de

Olaf Scholz (German pronunciation: [ˈoːlaf ˈʃɔlts]; born (1958-06-14)14 June 1958) is a German politician, and has been Chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. He was First Mayor of Hamburg from 7 March 2011 to 13 March 2018. From 2018 until 2021, Scholz was the Vice Chancellor of Germany and Federal Minister of Finance during the Angela Merkel cabinet.

Scholz was born on June 14, 1958, in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, but grew up Hamburg's Rahlstedt district.^[1] He began studying law at the University of Hamburg in 1978 as part of a one-stage legal training course.^[2]

From May to October 2001, he was Minister of the Interior (Innensenator) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and from 2002 to 2004 he was general secretary of the SPD.

In 2005 Scholz was elected a member of the sixteenth Bundestag, and succeeded Franz Müntefering as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, when the latter left office in 2007.^[3]

In 2010, Scholz took part in the annual Bilderberg Meeting in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain.^[4]

On 20 February 2011, the Social Democrats led by Scholz won the Hamburg state election, 2011 with 48.3% of the votes, resulting in 62 out of 121 seats in the Hamburg Parliament.^[5] Scholz resigned as a member of the seventeenth Bundestag on 11 March 2011 shortly after his election as First Mayor.

After the 2017 federal election, the CDU, CSU and SPD agreed to continue a coalition, Scholz was accepted by all parties as Federal Minister of Finance. Scholz was sworn in alongside the rest of the Government on 14 March 2018. He also took the role of Vice-Chancellor of Germany under Angela Merkel.^[6] Within his first months in office, Scholz became one of Germany's most popular politicians, reaching an approval rating of 50 percent.^[7]

On August 10, 2020, the SPD party executive nominated him as its chancellor candidate for the 2021 federal election in Germany. Scholz led the SPD to a narrow victory in the election, winning 25.8% of the vote and 206 seats in the Bundestag.^[8]

On 8 December 2021, Scholz was elected and sworn-in as Chancellor by the Bundestag with 395 votes in favour and 303 against.^[9] At 63 years, 177 days of age, Scholz is the oldest person to become Chancellor of Germany since Ludwig Erhard who was 66 years, 255 days old when he assumed office on 17 October 1963.

During his campaign in the 2021 election, Scholz was against forcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. However, since the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant began to rise in late November 2021, he supported a vaccine mandate, including closure of non-essential retail stores to unvaccinated adults and a vaccine mandate for adults.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Scholz is married to SPD politician Britta Ernst since 1998. The couple live in Potsdam since 2018.^[15]

Scholz was raised in member of the Protestant Church in Germany.^[16] At his inauguration as chancellor in 2021, Scholz took the oath of office without a reference to God (the second chancellor to do so after Gerhard Schröder). He is the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany who is not a member of a church.^[17]