Peer Steinbruck

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Peer Steinbrück (2013)
Signature of Peer Steinbrück

Peer Steinbrück (born January 10, 1947 in Hamburg ) is a German politician ( SPD ). From 2002 to 2005 Steinbrück was the eighth Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia , from 2005 to 2009 Federal Minister of Finance and Deputy Federal Chairman of the SPD. In the 2013 federal election he was defeated by the incumbent Angela Merkel as SPD candidate for chancellor . From 2009 to 2016 he was a member of the German Bundestag and then began advising the board of ING-DiBa .

Origin and family

Peer Steinbrück was born as the first of two sons to the married couple Ernst (1914–1998) and Ilse Steinbrück (1919–2011) in Hamburg. Peer Steinbrück's father Ernst was born in Danzig and grew up in Heringsdorf and Stettin ; after the Second World War he worked as an architect in Hamburg . Grandfather Herbert Steinbrück, engineer and technical director of the Heringsdorf seaside resort, was sentenced to death by a court martial near Swinoujscie at the end of the Second World War and was executed because he had refused to take over the senseless command of a group of Hitler Youth and Volkssturm men .

A great-grandfather had married a member of the upper-class Delbrück family; Peer Steinbrück is therefore a great-great-grandnephew of Adelbert Delbrück , who is known as the "father of Deutsche Bank ". The Steinbrück family had lived in Pomerania since 1717 ; Many pastors belonged to it, including the Szczecin Pastors Joachim Bernhard Steinbrück and Johann Joachim Steinbrück, who emerged as historical researchers .

Peer Steinbrück's parents had married in Stettin in 1943. His mother, born Ilse Schaper, came from a Hamburg tobacconist family and had Danish roots on his mother's side. In the mid-1930s, during the Nazi era , she spent a long time with her relatives in Denmark and Sweden in order to avoid the Association of German Girls .

Peer Steinbrück grew up in a middle-class family in a tenement house in the eastern part of Hamburg-Uhlenhorst .

Steinbrück now lives in the Plittersdorf district of Bonn and has a second home in a building project by Eva Högl in Weddinger Sprengelkiez . He has been married to Gertrud Steinbrück, b. Isbary (born 1950). Until her retirement in July 2013, she was a teacher for biology and politics at the Protestant Amos-Comenius-Gymnasium Bonn . They have a son and two daughters together. A cousin of Steinbrück is married to the actor Lutz Riemann . His wife's stepsister is the actress Eva Maria Keller .

School education and denomination

He attended the Johanneum's ancient language school for scholars , which he had to leave because of poor grades in lower secondary school . Steinbrück repeated a school year twice during his entire school years (1953 to 1968) . In 1968 he graduated from the State Commercial School Am Lämmermarkt in Hamburg-St. Georg with the certificate of the subject-related higher education entrance qualification (specializing in economics). Steinbrück resigned from the Protestant Church at the age of 18; he rejoined the Church in 2005.

Bundeswehr and studies from 1968 to 1974

From 1968 to 1970 Steinbrück completed his basic military service in the Bundeswehr and trained as a reserve officer candidate for the army as a temporary soldier (SaZ 2) with the telecommunications unit of the tank battalion 314 in Oldenburg - Bümmerstede . His current rank is Lieutenant in the Reserve . From the 1970 summer semester he studied economics with a minor in sociology at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (CAU) in Kiel , where the Schleswig-Holstein FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki was one of his fellow students. He completed his studies in 1974 with a degree in economics .

Professional activity 1974 to 1990

After completing his studies, he worked from 1974 onwards under a 15-month contract for the Federal Ministry for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development . In 1976 Steinbrück tried to get a temporary position in this ministry, which he was denied because of security concerns. Steinbrück suspects that this was due to the search of the community in which he lived during his studies in Kiel in 1972. There was a suspicion that a terrorist from the Red Army faction was hiding there . As a result, he was initially unemployed for a few months until he was able to start his career in the public service in the then Federal Ministry of Transport in the fall of 1976 . In 1977 he became the personal advisor to Ministers Hans Matthöfer and Volker Hauff in the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology . Steinbrück wrote speeches for Matthöfer. From June 1978 to February 1981 Steinbrück was (officially as a research assistant of the higher service auxiliary speaker ) in the Chancellery of Helmut Schmidt worked. There he held a position in the mirror department of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. In 1981 Steinbrück worked in the permanent representation of the Federal Republic in East Berlin , where he worked in the economics department. In 1981/82 he was again a personal advisor, this time responsible for Federal Research Minister Andreas von Bülow .

After the break of the social-liberal coalition under Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in the autumn of 1982, Peer Steinbrück was given leave of absence until he was appointed advisor to the SPD parliamentary group in the spring of 1983 . In 1985 he moved to the Ministry for the Environment, Regional Planning and Agriculture in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1986 he became office manager of the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Johannes Rau ; he held this position until 1990.

Political career

1990–1993: State Secretary in Schleswig-Holstein

In 1990 Steinbrück moved as State Secretary to the State Government of Schleswig-Holstein under Prime Minister Björn Engholm , first to the Ministry for Nature, Environment and Regional Development (until 1992), then to the Ministry for Economics, Technology and Transport (until 1993).

1993–2002: State Minister in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia

On May 19, 1993 Steinbrück was appointed Minister of Economics, Technology and Transport of Schleswig-Holstein ( Cabinet Simonis I and Cabinet Simonis II ). He held this office until October 28, 1998, and then went back to North Rhine-Westphalia, where he initially worked for the Ministry of Economics and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Technology and Transport ( Clement I cabinet ) from October 28, 1998 and from October 22 , 1998 February 2000 headed the Ministry of Finance (Cabinet Clement I and Cabinet Clement II ). According to media reports, Steinbrück is said to have been interested in becoming president of a savings bank and giro association at the end of the 1990s, but this failed due to resistance in the SPD.

2002–2005: Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia

On November 6, 2002 Steinbrück was elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia ( Steinbrück Cabinet ). He succeeded Wolfgang Clement , who had given up the office to become Federal Minister for Labor and Economics. After the SPD with its top candidate Steinbrück in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2005, with 37.1%, achieved its worst result in a state election in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1954 and also lost the Green votes, the red-green coalition that supported it lost its majority in the state parliament a. As a result, the new majority in the state parliament elected Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) as the new Prime Minister on June 22, 2005.

2005–2009: Federal Minister of Finance in the grand coalition

On November 22, 2005 Steinbrück was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the federal government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel . He announced that he would continue the policy of Hans Eichel , including promoting private equity and real estate investment trusts . The trade in “ securitisations ”, which later became known as “scrap papers”, should be made easier “from the point of view of the Federal Ministry of Finance”, announced its State Secretary Jörg Asmussen , and this was followed by legislation led by the BMF. In 2007, his Ministry of Finance adopted a legal text for the tax law that had been drawn up by the banking and advisory lobby "one-to-one, without changing a comma". This enabled cum-ex business to be relocated abroad and then peaked in 2010, with billions of euros in taxpayers' money disappearing into private pockets.

Economic crisis 2008/09

Until September 2008, Steinbrück was of the opinion that the German banking system was stable and that no rescue was necessary. At the end of September 2008 this position was revised with a quickly negotiated rescue of Hypo Real Estate (HRE). Steinbrück passed the negotiations on the bank bailout to his State Secretary Asmussen in particular. The bank received government guarantee commitments in the three-digit billion range and as a result of the negotiations, private banks were allowed to continue to grant an interest-bearing loan of 15 billion euros to HRE, for which the state was now liable. In the HRE investigation committee, which was installed later, he was accused of having intervened earlier in the inevitable bankruptcy of HRE to reduce damage (for example, BaFin President Jochen Sanio informed him of the HRE crisis in January 2008). Steinbrück, on the other hand, took the view before the HRE committee that the HRE crisis was not foreseeable and was only caused by the decision of the US government to let Lehman Brothers go bankrupt.

In addition to the expensive HRE rescue, a number of bank aid, u. a. for IKB Deutsche Industriebank ( privatized again after state rescue to Lone Star ), SachsenLB , BayernLB and Commerzbank (entry as the main shareholder for a price 15 billion euros higher than the stock market for the shares) responded to the financial crisis. Furthermore, the Federal Agency for Financial Market Stabilization was founded with assets of 500 billion euros . The packages were welcomed by the banks and the media and Steinbrück received the politics award from the magazine Politik & Kommunikation at the end of 2008 for politics during the financial crisis .

To generally avert the economic crisis, economic stimulus programs were also launched, but against Steinbrück's will. According to Steinbrück, the economic stimulus programs should only last for a short time and instead the central bank should increase interest rates to prevent inflation. He also spoke out in favor of setting up a state-secured bad bank to accept endangered bank papers. During the financial crisis, he suggested that the deregulations that had taken place under him had been correct, but saw the party as responsible for them. More generally, Steinbrück tried in public relations on the one hand to justify the adopted financial market policy, on the other hand to critically assess "excesses" of the financial system.

SPD member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2016

Steinbrück took part in the 2009 federal election in constituency 105 (Mettmann I) and on September 27, 2009 lost the fight for the direct mandate with 33.8% against Michaela Noll (CDU), who achieved 44.4% of the vote. Instead, Steinbrück moved into the Bundestag for the first time as third on the SPD state list of North Rhine-Westphalia. On September 29, Steinbrück announced that he would largely withdraw from top politics. So he resigned the office of the deputy federal chairman of the SPD and declared the renunciation of new offices. However, he accepted his mandate and has been a member of the Bundestag ever since. On October 27, 2009, he received his certificate of discharge as Minister of Finance.

Peer Steinbrück (2011)

After the clear defeat in the elections, there was an internal party discussion about changing the SPD course according to Agenda 2010 . Steinbrück turned against Sigmar Gabriel's position of orienting politics more towards the interests of the majority of employees and the weak in society and against the one-sided focus on social policy that he assumed.

Several media outlets (e.g. Spiegel , Bild , Handelsblatt ) brought Steinbrück into the discussion as the next SPD candidate for Chancellor from 2010 onwards, and according to the ARD Germany trend, his popularity ratings as a possible candidate for Chancellor rose in the polls , in some cases even above Angela Merkel's and Sigmar Gabriel . In the party itself he was viewed more critically in 2010, among other things because of his participation in the deregulation in the financial sector and his absence in committees; his possible candidacy has been described by some as a “phantom debate”. His book publication “Unterm Strich” was received a lot and mostly positively in the German media; Hermann Scheer was one of the critical reviewers .

After leaving the office of Federal Minister of Finance, Steinbrück was hired as a speaker by several companies, including the auditing and consulting firm KPMG , with high fees. From the Internet platform abgeordnetenwatch.de Steinbrück was criticized for that it related high income from outside activities, while on the other hand, perceive only partially, according to research by the Internet platform also his paid job as a Member of Parliament. Since the 2009 Bundestag election (as of August 17, 2010), he has not participated in 12 of 19 important parliamentary votes. In an interview during the Beckmann TV show, Steinbrück replied that he did not accept these "rules of the game" because, in his opinion, parliamentwatch.de is a commercial medium that earns money through advertising income. Steinbrück rejected the criticism that he was a "truant".

In the summer semester 2011 Steinbrück received the visiting professorship for political management from the Mercator Foundation at the NRW School of Governance at the University of Duisburg-Essen . At the end of 2011, Steinbrück took on an honorary professorship for public finance and international financial policy at the University of Leipzig .

On September 30, 2016 Steinbrück left the Bundestag prematurely at his own request. He justified his step by saying that he could no longer help his party because of the self-imposed reluctance in the upcoming federal election campaign in 2017 .

2012–2013: SPD candidate for Chancellor for the 2013 federal election

Steinbrück at an election campaign event in Würzburg (2013)

On October 1, 2012, Steinbrück was unanimously nominated by the SPD party executive as the SPD's candidate for chancellor for the 2013 federal election. On December 9th, he was elected candidate for chancellor with 93.45% at a special party conference. It is the second worst election result of a candidate, the worst result in 1998 was given to Gerhard Schröder .

On May 10, 2013, he appointed Gesche Joost (networked society and network policy), Thomas Oppermann (domestic and legal policy) and Klaus Wiesehügel (labor and social affairs) to his competence team . Also appointed on May 27, 2013 were Florian Pronold (Infrastructure and Affordable Housing), Manuela Schwesig (Women, Family, Building East, Demography and Inclusion), Brigitte Zypries (Consumer Policy) and on June 5, 2013 Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (Education and Science) , Christiane Krajewski (economy), Karl Lauterbach (health and care) and Matthias Machnig (energy and environmental policy).

After the general election, the SPD entered into a grand coalition with the Union, with Angela Merkel remaining as Chancellor. After he had already ruled out government participation as a minister before the election, Peer Steinbrück announced his retirement from the top of the SPD. He was initially still a member of the German Bundestag , but announced the end of his activity as a parliamentarian at the end of September 2016. Steinbrück stated that he "thinks the time has come" after the legislative process to set up a federal foundation in honor of Helmut Schmidt , who died in November 2015, has been completed, so that he sees "this personal obligation as fulfilled".

Advising the Ukrainian government in 2015

In March 2015 Steinbrück started to advise the agency for the modernization of Ukraine on a part-time basis and ended his engagement after criticism in June of that year.

Working as a bank advisor since 2016

In October 2016, Peer Steinbrück announced that he would advise the ING-DiBa Board of Management after leaving the Bundestag . The bank has a long social democratic tradition, it was not involved in "misconduct or manipulation", but acted "very conservative and risk averse," he told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit .

The process enlivened the discussion about a longer waiting period for politicians when changing sides in business after leaving office. The social scientist Michael Opielka wrote on Twitter : “Politics was worth it.” Sahra Wagenknecht from the Left commented at the same point: “Bought politics? Steinbrück can be its commitment to the EU bank bailout now silver. "Gregor Hackmack the portal Abgeordnetenwatch.de said in Germany radio , that he welcomed it that Steinbrück had resigned his seat. He now dedicates himself “fully to his former secondary activity, which in the end has been his main activity for a long time, namely to generate additional income”.

In July 2017 Steinbrück went on a cabaret tour through Germany with Florian Schroeder .

Positions and Government Policy

Steinbrück ( Munich Security Conference 2012)

Unconstitutional funding of households

During his time as finance minister and later as prime minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state parliament decided in 2001 and 2002 with the votes of the parliamentary groups of the SPD and the Greens budgets that were unconstitutional in the opinion of the state constitutional court. In order to be able to present a balanced budget, Steinbrück had used reserves that had previously been financed with loans. This credit-financed formation of reserves violated the principle of economic efficiency and the credit limit regulation of the state constitution, according to the court.

Deregulation of the financial markets

Steinbrück advocated the deregulation of the financial markets in the coalition agreement of the First Grand Coalition under Angela Merkel .

Bank subsidization

Until September 2008, Steinbrück took the position that the German banking system was secure and did not need a rescue. In October 2008, however , as the most expensive rescue case in German economic history, Hypo Real Estate received aid from the financial market stabilization fund amounting to 20 billion euros, which had to be expanded by a further 10 billion euros in November 2008 and an additional 12 billion euros in January 2009. With the consent of Steinbrück and Merkel, Deutsche Bank was able to significantly reduce the billions in obligations that it would have to bear if the deposit protection fund had been drawn on, by making the rescue of Hypo Real Estate, which was already founded as a bad bank , systemically relevant and a collapse of the entire banking system was advised. Deutsche Bank also reduced its share in the bank rescue through normal-interest loans to HRE. These realities and the billions for the real estate financier HRE made Steinbrück revise his view.

Euro crisis and Greece crisis 2015

In the course of the euro crisis , Steinbrück stood behind his party colleague Sigmar Gabriel's demand for joint debt liability in Europe in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung . In return, an EU body should be set up to exercise strict control over budgetary policy in the nation states that are being helped. Criticism from the Union and FDP, which the SPD accused of “debt socialism”, he called “stupid”. He justified his point of view by stating that the states would either have to give up more sovereignty rights to Europe or would have to take the path towards re-nationalization, which would be "a fatal path" especially for Germany as an export nation. However, he spoke out against a new haircut for Greece .

In the run-up to the vote on the third euro zone aid package for Greece, Steinbrück declared on July 17, 2015 that he was one of the few SPD MPs who wanted to vote against the package, spoke of " delaying bankruptcy " and predicted that no improvement was in sight and that there will also be a fourth aid package for Greece.

Economic stimulus programs

According to Manager Magazin , economists from different schools sharply criticize Steinbrück's economic expertise. In the opinion of the director of the union-affiliated Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research, the rejection of the economic stimulus programs, which Steinbrück justified with concern about inflation , is not "absurd".

Bank secrecy, tax evasion and money laundering

From 2008 a public discussion arose in Germany about banking secrecy and tax evasion , among other things because the German federal government was condemned to implement the EU money laundering directive , which was already a long time ago, and to pursue money laundering more closely. As a result, a corresponding law was passed in August 2008. Because of Steinbrück's statements about investigation problems, there were several clear criticisms abroad.

So he was z. B. was criticized in Switzerland in March 2009 for his statements in connection with Swiss banking secrecy . His statement “We don't just have to use the carrot, we also have to use the stick” was voted sentence of the year in German-speaking Switzerland . In addition, he compared the Swiss with an Indian people , and the threat of putting Switzerland on the OECD's black list in order to pillory it as a tax haven with the “ 7th Cavalry [of General Custer ] before Yuma, which one The German ambassador was subsequently summoned to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs several times, and the Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey dismissed the remarks as bad behavior. The at least existing possibilities to prosecute tax evasion were little used, among other things, at the time of Steinbrück; From 2005 there was only one request for administrative and legal assistance to combat evasion to Switzerland. As recently as 2016, Steinbrück was given the name "whip peer", which was often used before.

In May 2009, Steinbrück triggered tensions again with an allusion to Ouagadougou , the capital of Burkina Faso , which was perceived as a comparison with Luxembourg . For his part, the Luxembourg Foreign Office chief Jean Asselborn drew a comparison to the occupation of his country by Nazi Germany 1940–1944 , which also began with words and speeches. The Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll said of Steinbrück's statements in the daily newspaper Kurier : “We cannot accept driving over it under any circumstances. These are emotions for the satisfaction of lower instincts or for choice purposes. "

The “Law to Combat Tax Fraud” proposed by the Ministry of Finance because of the issue was passed in 2009, but has not been applied until today (2010) - after the change of government to black and yellow.

Family policy

Steinbrück is against the care allowance enforced by the CDU / CSU , as he sees this endangered the self-determination of mothers.

He advocates equal treatment of same-sex partnerships with traditional marriage and strives for an equalization of tax privileges.

Integration policy

Steinbrück said it was a “conceivable way” to introduce gender-segregated physical education for Muslim boys and girls in order to take into account the parents' religious reservations. Angela Merkel criticized his proposal by calling it the "opposite of integration".

Foreign policy

Steinbrück praises the European Union as a model for resolving political conflicts. He warns against Germany's military involvement in the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program and also explains that Germany has a great deal of responsibility for the existence of Israel . After the parliamentary elections in Italy in February 2013, Peer Steinbrück said: "To a certain extent, I am appalled that two clowns have won." Steinbrück called the North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un a "crazy North Korean". After the surveillance scandal in 2013 , Steinbrück called on Chancellor Merkel to oppose the USA . Steinbrück warns of a military intervention in Syria and advocates a negotiated solution to the Syrian conflict .

Energy policy

Steinbrück wants to force electricity providers to keep electricity prices low. He demands that the Federal Network Agency should be given the right to intervene in the event of excessive basic service tariffs. This would lead to a relief of 1.5 billion euros per year.

Transport policy

Steinbrück rejects the speed limit on motorways proposed by Sigmar Gabriel and is against the car toll demanded by Horst Seehofer for travelers from abroad.

Controversy and criticism

False suspicion by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Because neighbors had sent the police to Steinbrück's community in Kiel in the run-up to the German autumn , Steinbrück was at times considered a risk by the German security authorities. Although the police visit was unfounded, the resulting entries with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and proceedings by the Kiel public prosecutor on the basis of the radical decree prevented Steinbrück's appointment at the Bonn building ministry in March 1976. In 1975 Steinbrück moved to Bonn to his future wife Gertrud, who was working there as a doctoral student. Only after the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Kiel state parliament , the member of the local parliamentary commission for the control of the protection of the constitution , Klaus Matthiesen and other SPD politicians, including Norbert Gansel and Reimut Jochimsen , had intervened , the Kiel public prosecutor closed the case. She certified Steinbrück that she had only been a witness in a closed case because of the formation of a criminal organization . After six months of unemployment, Steinbrück became an employee in the Bonn Federal Ministry for Research and Technology in 1976 under the then head of the planning group and later department head Ekkehard Wienholtz (SPD) and State Secretary Volker Hauff (SPD).

Debate about primary and secondary income

In 2003, Peer Steinbrück came under fire in the context of the WestLB affair because he did not take part in the meetings of the credit committee of which he was a member as Prime Minister. In doing so, he had not waived the related remuneration. In accordance with the state ministers' law and the state's secondary employment regulation, however, the then finance minister Peer Steinbrück had paid the income up to 6,000 euros to the state treasury.

In April 2012 it became known that Steinbrück received the highest published additional income of all members of the German Bundestag. Between October 2009 and February 2012 he received more than 75 lectures, for which he almost always received a fee of at least 7,000 euros (the exact amount is not published and can be considerably higher). In addition, in his role as a member of the supervisory board of the ThyssenKrupp steel group, he received almost EUR 50,000 in financial year 2009/2010. According to media reports, Steinbrück earned a total of at least 500,000 euros in additional income between 2009 and 2012. Steinbrück was accused of having given lectures at companies with which he had dealt as finance minister, for example at the business law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer , which had drawn up the bank rescue law on behalf of the federal finance ministry , which he led, and had provided other services. The anti-corruption organization Transparency International reprimanded Steinbrück and accused him of not even following the rules of the Bundestag correctly. She asked him to name not only the names of his speaking agencies, but the actual clients. Steinbrück did not want to publish his income tax assessment because it would be assessed together with his wife. Before he was nominated as SPD candidate for chancellor, Steinbrück had announced that he would no longer give paid lectures in the future.

On October 30, 2012, Steinbrück published the report of an auditor commissioned by him , from which it emerges that he received around € 1.25 million (gross) lecture fees from November 2009 to June 2012 and taxed 48.5%. In November 2012, additional ancillary income became known. He received 550,000 euros from book fees, a further five-digit sum for an interview in the annual report of the construction company Bilfinger , 115,000 euros for his supervisory board mandate and 65,000 euros for ThyssenKrupp's past fiscal year. In addition, as a member of the Borussia Dortmund supervisory board, he has received 10,000 euros annually since 2010 . In the legislative period from 2009 to 2013, Steinbrück earned around EUR 2 million gross from ancillary income alone.

In December 2012, Steinbrück said under criticism, also from his own party, that he considered the salary of the Federal Chancellor , the Federal Minister and the Bundestag MPs to be too low "- measured by the performance that he or she has to provide and in relation to other activities with far less Responsibility and much higher salary ”.

Peer Steinbrück: Certificate handover as honorary professor by the rector Beate Schücking of the University of Leipzig ; Inaugural lecture "The Economic and Political Significance of the European Monetary Union" (December 9, 2011)

Activity at universities

Steinbrück was visiting professor for political management at the University of Duisburg-Essen in the summer semester 2011 and has been honorary professor for finance and international financial policy at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Leipzig since 2011 .

Search for sponsors for a chess tournament

In 2006, Steinbrück was Federal Minister of Finance at Deutsche Post AG, Telekom, E.ON , Deutsche Bahn , RAG AG and Porsche AG for donations of up to one million euros for a private tournament for world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik against the computer program Deep Fritz in Bonn. According to stock lawyers, Steinbrück should not have solicited donations in his role as finance minister. Uwe H. Schneider from the Institute for Credit Law at the University of Mainz sees “a request for a hidden profit distribution, but at least for a breach of duty”. The commercial lawyer Michael Adams from the University of Bonn also said that the sponsorship request was "incompatible with his position as the ultimate responsible representative of the major shareholder, the Federal Republic [of Telekom and Deutsche Post]."

Steinbrück, who learned to play chess as a child and is a hobby chess player, found nothing dishonorable in the search for sponsors. His concern was to make the “serve” with this event, to bring another world chess championship to Germany after about 80 years (last in 1934 ). Steinbrück supported the 2008 World Chess Championship in Bonn as patron.

PeerBlog

PeerBlog was a blog that was used for advertising purposes for the SPD's candidate for chancellor for the 2013 federal election . On the page wrote a team around the Düsseldorf PR consultant and former journalist Karl-Heinz Steinkühler , which also took care of the financing. The site was sponsored by five anonymous entrepreneurs, who (according to Focus ) paid a six-figure sum, which in turn led to criticism of Steinbrück: Lobbycontrol describes it as “non-transparent campaign aid”, which is “unacceptable”. Even Konstantin von Notz , Internet expert of the parliamentary group of Alliance 90 / The Greens , called Steinbrueck on to call his supporters. Steinbrück rejected this request. He doesn't know the entrepreneurs, especially since he “can't even begin to see anything disreputable about them”. A statement by his spokesman Michael Donnermeyer, according to which Steinbrück knew "a number of supporters", had been misinterpreted. An examination by the Bundestag administration did not reveal any violation of the rules on party financing.

Steinbrück has consented to the use of his name. The agency of blog operator Steinkühler counted the SPD-led Düsseldorf state government among its most important customers. And Steinbrück's closest advisor, Roland Fäßler, is an old confidante of Steinkühler's. According to constitutional lawyer Hans Herbert von Arnim , this “construction is strongly reminiscent of the Maschmeyer campaign for Gerhard Schröder”. In 1998, Carsten Maschmeyer initially placed anonymous ads with the slogan “The next Chancellor must be from Lower Saxony” and only later confessed to the campaign.

Comments on the 2013 Italian parliamentary elections

In a “ Town Hall ” event under the title “Klartext” after the parliamentary elections in Italy 2013 , Steinbrück described the top candidates Beppe Grillo as a “professional clown” and Silvio Berlusconi as a “clown with a special testosterone boost”. The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano then canceled a planned meeting with Steinbrück. Criticism also came from his own party, including a lack of diplomacy and disrespect for Italian voters.

Awards

Memberships

Fonts

literature

Web links

Commons : Peer Steinbrück  - Collection of Images
Wikiquote: Peer Steinbrück  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Rybarczyk: Peer Steinbrück mourns his mother Ilse. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , September 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d Hans-Dieter Wallschläger : Steinbrück since 1717 in Pomerania. Chancellor candidate, descendant of a Pomeranian pastor family. In: The Pommersche Zeitung. No. 37/2013, pp. 12-13.
  3. ^ Eckart Lohse , Markus Wehner : Steinbrück. Biography. Droemer, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-426-27593-1 , p. 15 f. ( PDF ).
  4. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück. Biography. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2012, p. 11; Peter Carstens: Grown big with little people. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 1, 2012.
  5. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Practice early. In: Friday , July 5, 2012 (excerpt from the biography).
  6. ↑ Super Illu No. 41/2012 of October 4, 2012.
  7. ↑ Olaf Wedekind: Sozi Steinbrück now lives in Red Wedding. In: BZ , May 26, 2013.
  8. ↑ Dagmar Haas-Pilwat: “I do what I want - also as a national mother”. In: Die Welt , December 15, 2002.
  9. ↑ Radio interview of the Hessian broadcaster hr1 Talk from May 15, 2011.
  10. ↑ a b Dirk Banse, Michael Behrendt: Steinbrück, Stasi and "the friends". In: Welt am Sonntag , August 18, 2013, pp. 2–3.
  11. ↑ Steinbrück is enthusiastic about the theater as an actress. In: Augsburger Allgemeine , April 14, 2013.
  12. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Steinbrück's catastrophic years in the middle school. welt.de from September 29, 2012 , accessed on the same day
  13. ↑ Die Welt : A steep career as a parking lot attendant
  14. ↑ Der Stern: 88 Things You Did n't Know About Peer Steinbrück , No. 41 of October 4, 2012, pp. 60–66
  15. ↑ a b Peer Steinbrück. Retrieved on February 27, 2012 (Vita von Steinbrück on his website).
  16. ↑ Kubicki wants to rule with Steinbrück. n-tv , September 24, 2012, accessed September 24, 2012 .
  17. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück, biography. Munich 2012, p. 39.
  18. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück, biography. Munich 2012, p. 43.
  19. ↑ Article: Clear the stage for Schmidt and Steinbrück . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 24, 2011, accessed on October 24, 2011.
  20. ↑ Members' biography on bundestag.de ( Memento from October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ How Peer Steinbrück switched to business almost once . Report from January 5, 2013 on Spiegel-Online , accessed on January 5, 2013
  22. ↑ Der Spiegel: The Repressed Sins of the Locust Tamer , March 4, 2009
  23. ↑ dpa: Federal government lost billions: Witness in the "cum-ex" process: the state itself promoted tax deals . In: The time . October 29, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 16, 2019]).
  24. ↑ Tagesspiegel: The Great Raid , April 19, 2010
  25. ↑ Telepolis: The state capitulates to the banks , August 19, 2009
  26. ↑ a b c Tagesspiegel: Peer Steinbrück: The bottom line is only self-portrayal , September 24, 2010
  27. ↑ FTD: Lucas Zeise - A Blackmail Number ( Memento from September 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), August 31, 2009
  28. ↑ About the interaction of media, finance and politics - also visible at HRE (Part V on the financial crisis) , NachDenkSeiten , February 4, 2009
  29. ↑ politics & communication Digital press kit: Steinbrück Politician of the Year 2008, November 27, 2008
  30. ↑ FTD: Finance Minister wants to end economic aid, September 1, 2009
  31. ↑ Sueddeutsche, guest article by Peer Steinbrück: No morals - harm for all , July 17, 2009
  32. ↑ See, for example, speech at the “Topic the year” event in Frankfurt, January 14, 2008 Hans-Jürgen Arlt, Wolfgang Storz: Wirtschaftsjournalismus in der Kris. A study by the Otto Brenner Foundation. OBS workbook 63, Frankfurt / Main 2010, pp. 50–54
  33. ^ Rheinische Post: Michaela Noll (CDU) wins clearly ( Memento from September 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ↑ n-tv: Steinbrück beaten
  35. ^ A b Hamburger Abendblatt: Ministers in the constituencies - How voters rewarded and punished celebrities
  36. ↑ World: Peer Steinbrück provides all offices
  37. ↑ Die Welt: First candidacy - Peer Steinbrück, the oldest novice in the Bundestag
  38. ↑ FTD: Steinbrück warns SPD against left course ( memento from September 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), September 26, 2010
  39. ↑ a b Der Stern: The Phantom Chancellor Candidate , September 30, 2010
  40. ↑ z. B. Review in Handelsblatt , September 16, 2010
  41. ^ Guest contribution by Hermann Scheer in Friday: Der Hochtrabende , 23 September 2010
  42. ^ Die Zeit: Expensive Speakers with Official Bonuses , November 2, 2010
  43. ↑ Parliamentary Watch : A book, 29 lectures and several hundred thousand euros ( Memento from February 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  44. ↑ Ex-Minister Steinbrück: Parliamentary truant with top earnings - SPIEGEL Online, August 17, 2010
  45. ↑ Excerpt from the ARD broadcast Beckmann on February 20, 2010 , accessed on February 23, 2010
  46. ↑ Visiting professor at the NRW School: Peer Steinbrück is coming ; stiftung-Mercator.de, March 21, 2011 ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  47. ^ Peter Seybold: Honorary Professor in Leipzig. Steinbrück explains the world. SPON from December 9, 2011
  48. ↑ Steinbrück's farewell speech: "This was the last note from my hunting horn". In: Spiegel Online , September 29, 2016.
  49. ↑ Peter Carstens: Steinbrück unanimously nominated as candidate for chancellor. In: FAZ.net , October 1, 2012.
  50. ↑ Björn Hengst: SPD special party conference: Steinbrück elected candidate for chancellor with 93 percent. In: Spiegel Online . December 9, 2012, accessed December 10, 2012 .
  51. ↑ The SPD tames its unruly. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 9, 2012.
  52. ↑ Steinbrück's team for the federal election: the candidate and his K-team. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 27, 2013; Competence team ( memento from December 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Peer-Steinbrueck.de.
  53. ↑ SPD candidate withdraws: Peer Steinbrück has had enough of top politics. In: Focus .de. Retrieved September 6, 2014 .
  54. ↑ Ex-Finance Minister: Steinbrück gives up a Bundestag mandate. In: Spiegel Online. July 15, 2016, accessed July 15, 2016 .
  55. ↑ Steinbrück: "Like Alice in Wonderland". In: Format (magazine) . Issue 10, 2015; How Peer Steinbrück became an advisor to Ukraine. In: Die Welt , May 13, 2015.
  56. ↑ Ukraine engagement: Steinbrück withdraws from controversial consultancy agency. In: Spiegel Online , June 9, 2015.
  57. ^ SPD: Steinbrück becomes a consultant at ING-DiBa . In: The time . October 5, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed October 5, 2016]).
  58. ↑ Change in business: Steinbrück stimulates discussion about parental leave. In: Deutschlandfunk. October 5, 2016, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  59. ↑ Members watch : "The secondary activity was Steinbrück's main activity". In: Deutschlandfunk. October 6, 2016, accessed October 6, 2016 .
  60. ↑ Peer Steinbrück starts comedy career. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 22, 2017.
  61. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: "NRW households were unconstitutional", from September 2, 2003
  62. ↑ a b Ute Welty : Peer Steinbrück in Portrait: The Man of the Clear Edge ( Memento from September 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Tagesschau.de , September 28, 2012.
  63. ↑ a b Westdeutscher Rundfunk , 2010: Greed and megalomania. How politics was ripped off in the bank rescue , documentation by Hubert Seipel , 2010, program information .
  64. ↑ Susanne Höll, Claus Hulverscheidt: Steinbrück calls for European debt union. Süddeutsche.de, August 11, 2012, accessed on March 9, 2013 .
  65. ↑ http://www.wsj.de/article/SB10001424127887324809004578638052988566418.html
  66. ↑ Anger speech in front of the parliamentary group: Steinbrück prophesies fourth aid package for Athens. Focus, July 17, 2015, accessed July 17, 2015 .
  67. ↑ Manager Magazin: “Economists slap in the face for Steinbrück”, April 14, 2009
  68. ↑ Stern.de: Tax evaders can count on Steinbrück's gentleness, July 8th, 2009
  69. ↑ "Insulting": Calmy-Rey has had enough of Steinbrück In: Tages-Anzeiger , March 16, 2009.
  70. ^ Swiss Tagesschau: Fierce National Council debate on banking secrecy
  71. ↑ Jürgen Dunsch: Switzerland appoints a German ambassador In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 22, 2008.
  72. ^ Mathieu von Rohr : Steinbrück's wild west rhetoric angered the Swiss. In: Spiegel Online , March 17, 2009.
  73. ↑ German ambassador must trot. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 16, 2009.
  74. ↑ a b The truth behind Steinbrück's combative slogans. In: Report Mainz , April 6, 2009.
  75. ↑ Change of page: «Whip-Peer» becomes a bank advisor on SRF on October 5, 2016
  76. ↑ Barbara Schäder: Steinbrück is flippant again. ( Memento from September 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , May 5, 2009.
  77. ↑ Merkel intervenes. In: n-tv , May 7, 2009.
  78. ↑ Pröll zu Steinbrück: "Satisfaction of lower instincts" In: DiePresse.com , May 10, 2009.
  79. ↑ Steinbrück's whip is rolled up. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 22, 2009.
  80. ^ German tax evasion law only paper tiger. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 5, 2010.
  81. ↑ Steinbrück wants to abolish childcare allowance after the election. In: Die Welt , November 9, 2012.
  82. ↑ Steinbrück promises equality between lesbians and gays. In: queer.de , December 9, 2012.
  83. ↑ Merkel is against separate sports lessons for Muslims. In: Die Welt , April 6, 2013.
  84. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  85. ↑ a b Süddeutsche Zeitung : Italy's President Napolitano cancels Steinbrück , from February 27, 2013
  86. ↑ "Crazy North Korean" In: WAZ , April 3, 2013.
  87. ↑ Steinbrück: Merkel, like Schröder USA, has to resist. In: Focus , July 16, 2013.
  88. ↑ SPD candidate for chancellor: Steinbrück rejects a military strike against Syria. In: Spiegel Online . August 30, 2013. Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  89. ↑ Steinbrück wants to force lower electricity prices. In: Die Welt , August 15, 2013.
  90. ↑ http://www.autobild.de/artikel/spd-kanzlerkandidat-steinbrueck-im-auto-bild-interview-4349395.html
  91. ↑ Susanne Höll: "Schlicht und Einfach Selbstverliebtheit" In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 9, 2010 (interview).
  92. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück, biography. Munich 2012, p. 40ff.
  93. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück, biography. Munich 2012, p. 1.
  94. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück, biography. Munich 2012, p. 41.
  95. ^ WestLB affair: controller without control. In: Focus , July 21, 2003; WestLB affair brings Steinbrück into trouble. In: Handelsblatt , July 23, 2003.
  96. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau: "By the way, Steinbrück earns the most", from April 20, 2012 ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  97. ↑ image (newspaper) : red / green. Steinbrück is supposed to disclose everything as well as an addendum from February 22, 2013: Now this newspaper announced that the sum is much higher. Springer-Verlag had successfully sued the Federal Ministry of Finance at the Berlin Administrative Court to disclose the full fee it had paid to the law firm. The Financial Market Stabilization Agency paid as principal between October 2008 and October 2009 another approximately 5.5 million € at Freshfields. € 4.5 million of this was paid by recipients of SoFFin measures, including some major German banks, e. B. Commerzbank and HSH Nordbank . The share paid by the FMSA in the amount of approx. € one million was paid from funds that the FMSA raised from all SoFFin measure recipients through flat-rate fees.
  98. ^ Transparency International criticizes Steinbrück. In: Die Zeit , October 5, 2012.
  99. ↑ Debate about additional income: politicians from all parties attack Steinbrück. ( Memento from October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.de , October 4, 2012.
  100. ↑ a b weekly magazine Der Stern : Debate about additional income. Black-yellow shoots itself at Steinbrück
  101. ↑ Timo Frasch, Markus Wehner : Bottom line. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. No. 44, November 4, 2012, p. 5.
  102. ↑ Additional income as a member of the supervisory board: Steinbrück received 14,000 euros from Borussia Dortmund. In: Focus .de , November 7, 2012.
  103. ↑ Peer Steinbrück in conversation. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , December 29, 2012; Steinbrück finds the chancellor's salary too low. In: Die Zeit , December 29, 2012.
  104. ↑ Press release from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Retrieved November 7, 2017 .
  105. ↑ Peer Steinbrück appointed honorary professor at the University of Leipzig , press release of the University of Leipzig from November 29, 2011, accessed on June 28, 2016.
  106. ↑ Steinbrück asked other companies for donations. In: Spiegel Online , September 27, 2012.
  107. ↑ Parallels to Möllemann's letterhead affair: Does Steinbrück stumble over the chess tournament affair? In: Focus , September 23, 2012.
  108. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Peer Steinbrück. Biography. DTV, Munich 2012, p. 13 ( online ).
  109. ↑ Steinbrück defends himself against accusations of abuse of office. In: Reuters Germany , September 23, 2012.
  110. ↑ Steinbrück opens game: Anand before title defense. In: n-tv.de , October 24, 2008.
  111. ↑ Heike Anger, Dietmar Neuerer, Georg Watzlawek: Disclosure required: Greens distance themselves from Steinbrück's “PeerBlog”. In: Handelsblatt.com , March 5, 2013.
  112. ↑ “Peerblog” did not violate party funding. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 28, 2013.
  113. ↑ Steinbrück also irritates party friends. In: Die Zeit , February 28, 2013.
  114. ↑ Big Brother Awards 2007 - Category: Politics
  115. ↑ On Steinbrück's connection to the Ringier publishing house, see also: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 11, 2012 web link
  116. ↑ Peer Steinbrück Member of the Bundestag Honorary Doctorate at the HHU ( Memento from April 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), HHU report from December 7, 2011, accessed on December 7, 2011.
  117. ↑ Steinbrück and Merz elected to the supervisory board. In: BVB.de , November 30, 2010.
  118. ↑ Steinbrück ( memento of January 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at Thyssenkrupp.com.
  119. ↑ Four strong personalities new to the Senate (PDF). In: Nationalstiftung.de , March 1, 2010.
  120. ↑ Peer Steinbrück becomes a member of the board of trustees of the ZEIT Foundation. In: Zeit-stiftung.de , November 9, 2010.
  121. ↑ Peer Steinbrück. In: Bundestag.de .
  122. ↑ Board of Trustees | Employees. Retrieved on March 18, 2020 (German).
  123. ↑ The Foundation. In: Helmut and Loki Schmidt Foundation. Retrieved March 18, 2020 .
  124. ^ Website for the book
personal data
SURNAME Steinbrück, Peer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdL, MdB, Federal Minister of Finance
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg