Olaf Scholz was born on June 14, 1958, in Osnabrück, Germany, as the son of a family working in the textile industry. He grew up in Hamburg. Between 1978 and 1985, he studied law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hamburg and qualified as a lawyer. Until 1998, he worked as an attorney specializing in labor law.

Olaf Scholz joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at the age of seventeen while still in high school. He was politically active in the party’s youth organization, the Young Socialists (Jusos). Between joining the SPD as a student in 1975 and being elected to the Federal Parliament in 1998, he worked in his own law office in Hamburg, specializing in labor law. This professional background gave him deep insight into labor relations and independent entrepreneurship, shaping his political outlook.

Olaf Scholz was first elected to the German Federal Parliament in 1998. In 2001, he briefly served for five months as Interior Senator of the state of Hamburg. After returning to the Bundestag in 2002, he became Secretary General of the SPD, a position he held until his resignation in 2004. Due to his rigid and highly controlled speaking style, he was mockingly nicknamed “Scholzomat,” a reference to an automatic machine.

After serving as Federal Minister of Labour between 2007 and 2009, Olaf Scholz was elected Mayor of Hamburg in 2011. During his tenure as Mayor, he became the first German politician to establish official contact with Islamic communities in the country. Marking the 60th anniversary of the labor recruitment agreement between Turkey and Germany, he frequently emphasized the contribution of Turkish and immigrant workers to Germany’s prosperity. Despite several achievements, his image was damaged by violent clashes between police and protesters during the 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg. In 2018, he stepped down as Mayor and returned to Berlin to join the newly formed federal government.

Olaf Scholz served as Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018.

From March 2018 until September 2021, Olaf Scholz served as Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor. During the coronavirus crisis, he gained recognition as a crisis manager through large-scale financial aid packages and budgetary expansions.

Before joining the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018, Olaf Scholz had held several key positions, including SPD Secretary General, Federal Minister of Labour, Interior Senator, and Mayor of Hamburg.

In 2019, Olaf Scholz ran for the leadership of the SPD but lost in the second round to Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans. Despite losing the party leadership race, he became the SPD’s candidate for Chancellor.

In August 2020, Olaf Scholz was nominated by the Social Democratic Party of Germany as its candidate for Chancellor in the 2021 federal elections. His candidacy was officially confirmed by a majority vote at the SPD party congress held in August 2021.

In the federal election held on September 26, 2021, Olaf Scholz competed for the chancellorship against the Christian Union (CDU/CSU) candidate Armin Laschet and the Green Party candidate Annalena Baerbock. The SPD emerged as the largest party with 25.7 percent of the vote. Following the election victory, Scholz began coalition negotiations with other parties to form a government.

As a result of the federal election held on September 26, 2021, Olaf Scholz became the new Chancellor of Germany.

Olaf Scholz married Britta Ernst in 1998. The couple, who have no children, live in Potsdam, the capital of the state of Brandenburg, near Berlin. Since 2017, Britta Ernst has served as Minister for Education, Youth, and Sport of Brandenburg.

Political Party:
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

Source: Biyografiler.com