Martin Schulz was born on 20 December 1955 and is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament from Germany from 1994 to 2017 and a Member of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021.
55 Facts About Martin Schulz
2.
In November 2016, Schulz announced he would not seek a third term as President of the European Parliament, but instead would stand in 2017 as the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship.
3.
On 7 February 2018, coalition talks concluded and Martin Schulz announced he would succeed Sigmar Gabriel as Foreign minister and leave his party chairmanship to Andrea Nahles.
4.
On 13 February 2018 Martin Schulz stepped down as party chair.
5.
Martin Schulz was born in the village of Hehlrath, which is a part of Eschweiler in western Rhineland, near the Dutch and Belgian borders, as one of five children.
6.
Martin Schulz's father, Albert Schulz, was a local policeman and belonged to a social democratic family; his mother, Clara, belonged to a conservative Catholic family and was active in the Christian Democratic Union.
7.
Martin Schulz left school without passing his Abitur after failing the 11th grade twice.
8.
From 1975 to 1977 Martin Schulz then trained to be a bookseller.
9.
Martin Schulz suffered from alcoholism and tried to commit suicide on 26 June 1980.
10.
In 1974, at the age of 19, Martin Schulz joined the SPD, became involved with the Young Socialists and in 1984 was elected to the Wurselen Municipal Council, remaining a member for just over two electoral terms, to 1998, from 1987 onwards as mayor.
11.
Martin Schulz has served on a number of committees, including the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights.
12.
Martin Schulz led the German delegation of the Socialist group from 2000 and was a vice-chair of the Socialist Group in the EP.
13.
Martin Schulz was elected group leader in 2004, of the PSE Group, succeeding the Spaniard Enrique Baron Crespo, a position held until he was elected EP president.
14.
Since 2009, Martin Schulz has acted as the representative for European Affairs for Germany's SPD party and his views have deeply influenced his party's pro-European politics.
15.
On 17 January 2012, Martin Schulz was elected as President of the European Parliament, with 387 votes in favour out of 670 cast.
16.
Together with EU Commission President Barroso and EU Council President Herman van Rompuy, Martin Schulz collected the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the European Union.
17.
In November 2016, Martin Schulz announced that he would not run for a third term in January 2017, and instead return to German politics.
18.
Martin Schulz resigned his seat on 10 February 2017, leaving the European Parliament after more than twenty-two years.
19.
Martin Schulz was unopposed, as no other candidate stepped forward to challenge him in the race to be the socialist campaign figurehead.
20.
On 1 March 2014, Martin Schulz accepted the nomination of the Party of European Socialists in Rome.
21.
Martin Schulz was elected by 368 PES members out of 404, with only 2 votes against him.
22.
Martin Schulz ran against Conservative Jean-Claude Juncker, then Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and Liberal Guy Verhofstadt.
23.
However, when the Socialists came second in the European election behind the centre-right European People's Party, Germany's Social Democrats announced that they would accept one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives taking the German post on the European Commission if Martin Schulz remained president of the European Parliament.
24.
Accordingly, Martin Schulz did not join the European Commission but remained in his current position.
25.
Since 1999, Martin Schulz has been part of the SPD leadership under party chairmen Gerhard Schroder, Franz Muntefering, Matthias Platzeck, Kurt Beck and Sigmar Gabriel.
26.
Martin Schulz was an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2004,2009,2010 and 2012.
27.
In November 2016, Martin Schulz announced that he would not seek a third term as president of the European Parliament, but would instead run for a seat on the German parliament in the 2017 elections, which reignited the chancellorship speculations.
28.
On 24 January 2017, Martin Schulz was confirmed as the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor.
29.
On 24 January 2017, Martin Schulz became the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor in that year's Federal election.
30.
Polls showed Martin Schulz leading Merkel if Germans could elect their chancellor directly.
31.
In February 2018, these coalition talks concluded successfully and Martin Schulz announced he would succeed incumbent Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel as Foreign minister.
32.
In December 2020, Martin Schulz announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.
33.
Martin Schulz has hailed European unification as being civilization's greatest achievement over the past century.
34.
Martin Schulz is committed to strengthening Europe and the European institutions.
35.
Martin Schulz has often emphasised that the European Union is the best way to banish the "demons of the twentieth century", such as racism, xenophobia and antisemitism.
36.
In December 2017, Martin Schulz called for a new constitutional treaty for a "United States of Europe".
37.
Martin Schulz proposed that this constitution should be written by "a convention that includes civil society and the people" and that any state that declined to accept this proposed constitution should have to leave the bloc.
38.
Martin Schulz's proposal is "likely to be met with some resistance from Merkel and other EU leaders".
39.
In front of the European Council on 19 December 2013, Martin Schulz took responsibility for the initiation of the Cox-Kwasniewski mission to Ukraine.
40.
Martin Schulz believes that dignified work is a value in itself.
41.
However, Martin Schulz is much in favour of decent wage agreements, secure and lasting jobs, employee participation in decision-making and the examination of the social justification for claims and payments.
42.
In 2014, Martin Schulz delivered a speech to the Israeli Knesset, in which he criticised Israel for denying Palestinians a fair share of water resources in the occupied West Bank.
43.
In 2015, amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, Martin Schulz suspended a committee made up of Russian and EU lawmakers that meets several times a year to improve ties.
44.
In 2016, Martin Schulz stated that Donald Trump is a problem "for the whole world," and linked the Trump phenomenon to far-right populism in Europe.
45.
Martin Schulz called Trump an "irresponsible man" who "boasts about not having a clue".
46.
On 2 July 2003, one day after Italy taking over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, Martin Schulz criticized Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy of his domestic policy.
47.
On 24 November 2010 the British MEP Godfrey Bloom caused a row in the European Parliament when he interrupted a speech by Martin Schulz, heckling him with the Nazi propaganda slogan Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer and accusing him of being an 'undemocratic fascist'.
48.
The Dutch MEP Barry Madlener, from the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid, then protested against that decision, on the grounds that Martin Schulz himself had recently described the PVV MEP Daniel van der Stoep as a fascist, but had not been excluded from the Chamber.
49.
Martin Schulz received criticism after having transformed the Twitter account that his staff had built up for his European Parliament presidency into his own personal account in order to use it as part of his candidature to the EU Commission.
50.
Martin Schulz was accused of signing irregular promotions of close associates in a presidential decree that would have secured them financially advantageous posts beyond his departure.
51.
Martin Schulz described the complaint as an election maneuver by "anti-Europeans, conservatives and Greens" and referred a decision of the European Anti-Fraud Office not to initiate an official investigation.
52.
Martin Schulz accused Schulz and the Party leadership of not showing him the respect he deserves and being rude towards him.
53.
Martin Schulz is married and has two children, Nico and Lina.
54.
Martin Schulz suffered a period of alcoholism as a young man, after a knee injury put an end to his hopes of playing football.
55.
Besides German, Martin Schulz speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch with varying degrees of fluency.