Gerhard Schröder: From Rags to Political Riches

In one of the better known anecdotes about Gerhard Schröder, the ambitious young politician is climbing up on the railing outside the chancellery of the then-capital Bonn -- perhaps after a drink or two nearby -- while shouting "I want to get in there!"

The story, whether true or apocryphal, illustrates well the fact that Schröder has made it to the very top of German politics, and indeed, into the chancellery, thanks to driving ambition and single-minded purpose. This is not a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth and groomed for greatness from early on. In fact, his childhood and upbringing were anything but auspicious.

Difficult start

He was born on April 7, 1944, in Mossenberg, in Lower Saxony, into war and biting poverty. His father, who he never met, was an unskilled laborer who was killed in Romania while serving in the German army. His mother, a cleaning woman, had six children to raise and little money to do it with.

Breaking out of that world was not easy. After Schröder graduated from secondary school he worked in a hardware shop and as a construction worker. Determined to make a name for himself, he later went back to night school to get his Abitur, the degree which would enable him to attend university. He enrolled at the University of Göttingen in 1966 and got his law degree in 1970. He opened a law practice in Hanover in 1976.

Influenced by the strong social democratic ideals of his mother and his idol, Social Democrat and German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Schröder began to get more involved in party politics, although he had already joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1963. In 1978, he became head of its youth organization, the Young Socialists. For a time, he embraced leftist politics and causes, making a name for himself as a defender of then left-wing terrorist Horst Mahler and taking part in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

But it was also during this time that Schröder began to develop a penchant for cigars and expensive suits, qualities that earned him little admiration from more left-leaning members of the SPD. But such tastes coincided with his journey from the left wing to a more centrist position within the party.

In 1980 he was elected to the German parliament and in 1986, he became head of the SPD parliamentary group in the state legislature in Lower Saxony.

"Comrade Boss"

During the next four years, Schröder learned how to maneuver through the halls of power, and how to package political content for easy media consumption -- skills that turned out to be essential to his later success.

In 1990, he unexpectedly defeated Ernst Albrecht, the Christian Democratic premier of Lower Saxony, who was weakened by scandal. During his two-term leadership, Schröder put such a stamp on the state that even today, he is indelibly linked with it.

While he governed for a while with the environmentalist Green party, the always independent Schröder was not shy about sidling up to business interests. He had many friends among the heads of corporate Germany -- in the automotive and steel industries, shipyards, airlines and utilities. That, along with his slick media savvy and roguish charm -- not to mention the expensive cigars -- earned him the distrust of the SPD's left wing and his one-time coalition partners, the Greens. He earned a reputation as a narcissist and some SPD members derided him as "Comrade Boss."

New Middle

Schröder went on to conquer the chancellery in 1998, promising to end 16 years of "stagnation" under Helmut Kohl and to rule from the "New Middle," a version of the Third Way made popular by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

His first four years in office, however, were mixed in terms of success. He had the misfortune to be in the driver's seat during the global economic downturn after the strong growth of the late 1990's. He could not fulfil his promise of creating more jobs during his first term and at the time of his re-election campaign, the German jobless rate had topped four million.

But he did manage to eke out a re-election victory -- if only by the skin of his teeth -- in 2002, thanks largely to devastating floods in eastern Germany one month before the election and his strong opposition to the pending Iraq war.

Still, at times it appears that Schröder enjoys focusing on global affairs instead of messy domestic problems, like welfare and labor reform. As the first German chancellor to grow up after World War II, Schröder has not been afraid to push for a more active role for Germany on the world stage. He openly opposed long-time ally the United States by refusing to support the invasion of Iraq, and he is now campaigning for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for Germany, something that none of his predecessors would have ever considered doing.

Charmed life over?

However, two years into his second term, Schröder is facing near record low popularity levels and his party is losing members as he's been hit by a stubborn economic slowdown and a series of reform measures that is proving unpopular with grassroots members of his own SPD. He recently handed over the leadership of the party to a deputy who enjoys more support from the rank and file.

Media reports often speculate if Schröder's charmed political trajectory has reached its apogee and if the besieged chancellor might be considering leaving his post before his term is up. Schröder has denied it, saying he will continue the course and even seek a third term in 2006.