Peer Steinbrück

"Steinbrück" redirects here. For the settlement in Slovenia, see Zidani Most.

Peer Steinbrück
Minister of Finance
In office 22 November 2005 – 27 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Hans Eichel
Succeeded by	Wolfgang Schäuble
Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 6 November 2002 – 24 June 2005
Preceded by	Wolfgang Clement
Succeeded by	Jürgen Rüttgers
Minister of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 22 February 2000 – 6 November 2002
Premier	Wolfgang Clement
Preceded by	Heinz Schleußer
Succeeded by	Jochen Dieckmann
Minister of Economy of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office 28 October 1998 – 21 February 2000
Premier	Wolfgang Clement
Preceded by	Bodo Hombach
Succeeded by	Ernst Schwanhold
Minister of Economy of Schleswig-Holstein
In office 19 May 1993 – 28 October 1998
Premier	Heide Simonis
Preceded by	Uwe Thomas
Succeeded by	Horst Günter Bülck
Personal details
Born	(1947-01-10) 10 January 1947 Hamburg, West Germany (now Germany)
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Kiel
Website	Official website

Peer Steinbrück (born January 10, 1947) is a German social democratic politician and his party's designated candidate for the post of Chancellor in the 2013 general elections. From 2005 to 2009 he served as German Federal Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.

Early political career, Minister President

Steinbrück was born in Hamburg. After having been trained as an officer of the reserve of the Bundeswehr, Steinbrück studied economics in Kiel. He graduated in 1974.

After graduation Steinbrück worked for several German ministries and, from 1978 to 1981, in the office of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. In the 1980s, Steinbrück was Chief of Staff to the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau.

In 1993, he became Minister of Economy and Infrastructure in the State of Schleswig-Holstein. He then returned to North Rhine-Westphalia, where he became Minister of Economy and Infrastructure in 1998 and Finance Minister in 2000.

From 2002 to 2005, Peer Steinbrück served as Minister President (Ministerpräsident) of North Rhine-Westphalia. He headed a coalition government between the SPD and the Green Party.

In the state election on May 22, 2005, Steinbrück's SPD lost to the Christian democratic (CDU) opposition. This loss also had consequences for federal politics: then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who already was enfeebled by weak opinion polls and criticism within his own party, announced to call for an early federal election for the Bundestag. This ultimately resulted in the 2005 federal election.

German Finance Minister

After the 2005 Bundestag election, SPD and CDU formed a grand coalition under the leadership of new Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Peer Steinbrück became finance minister of Germany. Since 2005, he also has been deputy chairman of the SPD. He is generally considered a member of the more conservative wing of the party.

In December 2008, Steinbrück controversially attacked the British Keynesian approach to economic policy in an interview with Newsweek. He raised scepticism about the effectiveness of large fiscal stimulus packages and criticised the resulting increase in public debt.

Steinbrück also was a sharp critic of the Swiss banking secrecy, which in 2009 caused some tensions between Germany and Switzerland.

In a 2010 interview on German television, it appeared that the former minister, who had adopted a very critical stance of the shadow banking system, attributed characteristics of the private equity industry to hedge funds.

MP and potential alternative to Angela Merkel

Peer Steinbrück is a Member of Parliament (Bundestag) since 2009. He has been a prominent speaker for the SPD, especially on economic matters. He is considered to be the most probable opposition candidate for Bundeskanzler in the 2013 elections.

External links

• Peer Steinbrück's Homepage (German)
• Interview with Peer Steinbrück: "Kennen Sie denn Hawaii-Toast?" (German, sbznet.de)