Frank-Walter Steinmeier
 Frank-Walter Steinmeier    (Politician) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 5 January 1956 Detmold, West Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | German | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Giessen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Elke Büdenbender | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of | The American Academy in Berlin/Distinguished Visitors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Frank-Walter Steinmeier is a German politician who holds a doctorate in law and was formerly a career civil servant.
Career
He was a close aide of Gerhard Schröder when Schröder was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony during most of the 1990s, and served as Schröder's chief of staff from 1996. When Schröder became Chancellor of Germany in 1998, Steinmeier was appointed Under-Secretary of State in the German Chancellery with the responsibility for the intelligence services. From 1999 to 2005 he served as Chief of Staff of the Chancellery.
Steinmeier belongs to the right wing of the SPD, known as reformists and moderates. As chief of staff he was a principal architect of Agenda 2010, the Schröder government's controversial reforms of the welfare state.
He was involved in the negotiations for a peaceful transition of government during the Maidan protests in Ukraine during the 2014 Ukraine coup.
Opinions
On the initiation of sanctions against Russia amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, towards the German population:
“There are tougher days ahead for us in Germany, too," [The sanctions imposed, he said, would inevitably bring them.] "We will have to be prepared to bear them if our solidarity is not just to be lip service, if it is to be taken seriously.”
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (27 March 2022) [1]
He said that in a video message sent to a solidarity concert by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at Bellevue Palace, from which the Ukrainian ambassador, Andrij Melnyk, abstained since there were too many Russian musicians in the orchestra.[2]
