1. Olaf Scholz was First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019, and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009.
107 Facts About Olaf Scholz
1. 2.
Olaf Scholz became a member of the SPD in the 1970s and was a member of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2011.
3.
Olaf Scholz served in the Hamburg Government under First Mayor Ortwin Runde in 2001 and became general secretary of the SPD in 2002, where he served alongside SPD leader and then-chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
4.
Olaf Scholz became his party's chief whip in the Bundestag, later entering the First Merkel Government in 2007 as Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs.
5.
Olaf Scholz was then elected deputy leader of the SPD.
6.
Olaf Scholz led his party to victory in the 2011 Hamburg state election and became first mayor, a position he held until 2018.
7.
On 8 December 2021, Olaf Scholz was elected and sworn in as chancellor by the Bundestag, succeeding Angela Merkel.
8.
Three days after the invasion, Olaf Scholz set out the principles of a new German defence policy in his Zeitenwende speech.
9.
On 16 December 2024, Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence and in the following snap election on 23 February 2025, his SPD lost to Friedrich Merz's CDU, placing third, behind the AfD, and scoring the worst result in post-war history.
10.
Olaf Scholz was born on 14 June 1958, in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, and grew up in Hamburg's Rahlstedt district.
11.
Olaf Scholz has two younger brothers, Jens Scholz, an anesthesiologist and CEO of the University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein; and Ingo Scholz, a tech entrepreneur.
12.
Olaf Scholz later found employment as a lawyer specialising in labour and employment law, working at the law firm Zimmermann, Scholz und Partner.
13.
Olaf Scholz joined the Social Democratic Party at the age of 17.
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Olaf Scholz's family is traditionally Lutheran, and he was baptized in the Protestant Church in Germany.
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Olaf Scholz holds largely secular political views, and left the Church in adulthood, but has emphasised a need for appreciation of Germany's Christian heritage and culture.
16.
Olaf Scholz joined the SPD in 1975 as a student, where he came into contact with the Jusos, the youth organization of the SPD.
17.
Olaf Scholz was Vice President of the International Union of Socialist Youth from 1987 to 1989.
18.
Olaf Scholz supported the Freudenberger Kreis, a Marxist wing of the Jusos' university groups, arguing that society should "overcome the capitalist economy" in one of his publications.
19.
In 1987, Olaf Scholz crossed the inner-German border again and stood up for disarmament agreements as Juso-Vice at an FDJ peace rally in Wittenberg alongside FDJ head Eberhard Aurich.
20.
Olaf Scholz was elected to his first political office as a Deputy Member of the Bundestag representing the constituency of Hamburg-Altona in 1998, aged 40.
21.
Olaf Scholz resigned his mandate on 6 June 2001, to take office as Senator.
22.
On 30 May 2001, Olaf Scholz succeeded Hartmuth Wrocklage to become Senator for the Interior of Hamburg in the Senate led by Mayor Ortwin Runde.
23.
Olaf Scholz succeeded Wrocklage as Deputy Member of the Bundesrat.
24.
Olaf Scholz left office in October 2001, after the defeat of his party at the 2001 Hamburg state election and the election of Ole von Beust as First Mayor.
25.
Olaf Scholz's successor was Ronald Schill, who had won on a Law and order platform, with an emphasis on harsh penalties for drug dealers.
26.
Olaf Scholz was elected again to the Bundestag in the 2002 German federal election.
27.
From 2002 to 2004, Olaf Scholz served as General Secretary of the SPD; he resigned from that office when party leader and Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, facing disaffection within his own party and hampered by persistently low public approval ratings, announced he would step down as Leader of the Social Democratic Party.
28.
Olaf Scholz was one of a series of politicians who sparked debate over the German journalistic norm of allowing interviewees to "authorize" and amend quotes before publication.
29.
Olaf Scholz served as the SPD spokesperson on the inquiry committee investigating the 2005 German Visa Affair.
30.
Olaf Scholz became Chief Whip of the Social Democratic Party.
31.
Olaf Scholz served as a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel, which provides parliamentary oversight of the German federal intelligence services; the BND, MAD and BfV.
32.
In 2007, Olaf Scholz was appointed to serve as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the first Merkel Government, succeeding Franz Muntefering.
33.
Olaf Scholz resigned as a Member of the Bundestag on 11 March 2011, days after his formal election as First Mayor of Hamburg; Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Social Democrat, was appointed his Deputy First Mayor.
34.
On 7 June 2011, Olaf Scholz attended the state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama in honor of Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.
35.
From 2015 until 2018, Olaf Scholz served as Commissioner of the Federal Republic of Germany for Cultural Affairs under the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation.
36.
Olaf Scholz was asked to participate in exploratory talks between the CDU, CSU and SPD parties to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal election.
37.
Alongside fellow Social Democrats Jorg Asmussen and Thomas Oppermann, Olaf Scholz was reported in the media to be a possible successor to Schauble in the post of Finance Minister at the time; whilst Schauble remained in post, the talks to form a coalition were ultimately successful.
38.
In 2015, Olaf Scholz led Hamburg's bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics with an estimated budget of, competing against Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, and Budapest.
39.
In 2017, Olaf Scholz was criticised for his handling of riots that took place during the G20 summit in Hamburg.
40.
Olaf Scholz was sworn in alongside the rest of the fourth Merkel cabinet on 14 March 2018, taking the role of Vice Chancellor of Germany under Angela Merkel.
41.
In 2019, Olaf Scholz ran for leader of the SPD, but lost to Norbert Walter-Borjans.
42.
Olaf Scholz oversaw the allocation of funding received from Next Generation EU, the European Union's COVID-19 recovery fund.
43.
Olaf Scholz is credited as having convinced President of the US Joe Biden to agree to the proposal, which his predecessor Donald Trump had been opposed to.
44.
Also in June 2021, Olaf Scholz oversaw the Federal Central Tax Office's purchase of information regarding German citizens using Dubai for tax avoidance and evasion.
45.
Olaf Scholz was criticized in the context of the Wirecard scandal; serious misconduct by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, which is under the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Finance, is alleged to have contributed to the longevity of the fraudulent business.
46.
In June 2019, Olaf Scholz initially ruled out a candidacy for the party co-leadership following the resignation of Andrea Nahles.
47.
Olaf Scholz explained that a simultaneous activity as Federal Minister of Finance and party leader was "not possible in terms of time".
48.
Olaf Scholz said that many of his preferred candidates had not run for office, expressing a sense of "responsibility".
49.
On 10 August 2020, SPD party leadership agreed that it would nominate Olaf Scholz to be the party's candidate for Chancellor of Germany at the 2021 federal election.
50.
Olaf Scholz is usually grouped with the moderate wing of the SPD, and his nomination was seen by Die Tageszeitung as marking a decline of the party's left.
51.
Olaf Scholz was elected as chancellor by the Bundestag on 8 December 2021, with 395 votes in favour and 303 against.
52.
In December 2021, Olaf Scholz travelled to Warsaw for talks with Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, where they discussed the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany and bypass Poland, and Poland's dispute with the European Union over the primacy of EU law.
53.
Olaf Scholz backed Poland's efforts to stop the flow of migrants seeking entry from Belarus.
54.
Olaf Scholz extended into 2022 the suspension of the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
55.
In September 2022, Olaf Scholz visited the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, seeking to deepen ties with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and find alternative sources of energy.
56.
Olaf Scholz's government approved new arms export deals to Saudi Arabia, despite a ban imposed as a result of the Saudi war in Yemen and the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
57.
Olaf Scholz called the US "Europe's closest and most important partner".
58.
On 22 February 2022, Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would be halting its approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in response to Russia's recognition of two self-declared separatist republics within Ukraine.
59.
Olaf Scholz spoke against allowing the EU to cut Russia off from the SWIFT global interbank payment system.
60.
Olaf Scholz succeeded in obtaining the two-thirds majority necessary to amend the debt ceiling to allow Germany to establish a 100 billion euro defense fund that would not be subject to the restrictions.
61.
In June 2022, Olaf Scholz said that his government remains committed to phasing out nuclear power despite rising energy prices and Germany's dependence on energy imports from Russia.
62.
In November 2022, Olaf Scholz expressed support for the European Green Deal and reaffirmed Germany's goal of attaining climate neutrality, or net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, by 2045.
63.
On 14 March 2023, Olaf Scholz met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Berlin.
64.
In early May 2023, Olaf Scholz met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa to normalize relations between Germany and Ethiopia, which had been strained by the Tigray War between the Ethiopian government and rebels in Tigray.
65.
In May 2023, Olaf Scholz called on all parties involved to resolve the Cyprus dispute, which escalated after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the subsequent occupation of the northern part of the island.
66.
In March 2024, Olaf Scholz confronted EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell over his months-long criticism of Israel, saying Borrell did not speak for Germany.
67.
On 28 May 2024, Olaf Scholz said that his government has no plans to officially recognise a Palestinian state.
68.
In June 2024, Olaf Scholz welcomed Argentine President Javier Milei in Berlin.
69.
Olaf Scholz criticized European Union's trade policy and called on Brussels to speed up negotiations on free trade agreements.
70.
In December 2021, Olaf Scholz rejected the Polish government's claim for further World War II reparations.
71.
Olaf Scholz pointed out that Germany "continues to be willing to pay very, very high contributions to the EU budget", from which Poland has benefited considerably since its accession to the EU.
72.
On 26 February, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Olaf Scholz reversed his decision and pledged a supply of anti-tank weapons and Stinger missiles to Ukraine.
73.
Olaf Scholz opposed a reversal of Germany's scheduled end to nuclear power, saying the technical challenges were too great.
74.
Olaf Scholz ended it by accusing the German government of "dragging its feet" with regard to taking action against Russia.
75.
Olaf Scholz rejected a plan made by Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to deliver 100 Marder Infantry fighting vehicles from German stocks to Ukraine.
76.
In January 2023, Olaf Scholz announced the decision to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine.
77.
In May 2024, Olaf Scholz gave Ukraine permission to strike targets inside Russia with German-supplied weapons.
78.
Olaf Scholz supported the decision to place US long-range missiles in Germany, but his government's move was criticized by the political opposition as well as within Olaf Scholz's coalition.
79.
On 6 November 2024, Olaf Scholz removed Finance Minister Christian Lindner from his position, citing loss of trust.
80.
Germany faced a severe housing crisis in 2024, leading Olaf Scholz to describe housing as Germany's most pressing social issue.
81.
In October 2024, Olaf Scholz warned of the deindustrialization of Germany.
82.
In December 2024, Olaf Scholz criticized Volkswagen's plan to close factories in Germany.
83.
Olaf Scholz proposed a European subsidy programme for electric vehicles.
84.
Olaf Scholz pledged support for the German steel industry, which was facing high energy costs.
85.
On 13 January 2022, Olaf Scholz told lawmakers in the Bundestag that Germany should make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for all adults.
86.
In December 2021, Olaf Scholz said that Germany was a country of immigration and pledged to reduce barriers to immigration to Germany and make it easier for immigrants to obtain German citizenship.
87.
In 2022, Olaf Scholz stated that Russian deserters and draft evaders who refused to take part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be protected in Germany.
88.
Olaf Scholz said that Germany would have to accept 288,000 foreign workers every year.
89.
Olaf Scholz's government has already signed migration partnerships with several other countries, including Morocco, Uzbekistan and Nigeria.
90.
On 16 December 2024, Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in the Bundestag, paving the way for elections to be held on 23 February 2025.
91.
Olaf Scholz was elected to the 21st Bundestag by winning his constituency through the first vote in the 2025 German federal election.
92.
Olaf Scholz has said that he intends to take up his mandate.
93.
Olaf Scholz has been campaigning for a financial transaction tax for several years.
94.
In December 2019, Olaf Scholz pushed for the introduction of this tax at European Union level.
95.
In September 2019, Olaf Scholz negotiated the climate package in a key role for the SPD.
96.
In exchange, Olaf Scholz offered in subsidies to liquid gas terminals in northern Germany for US liquid gas imports.
97.
Olaf Scholz has advocated for the expansion of renewable energy capacities to replace fossil fuels.
98.
In May 2021, Olaf Scholz proposed the establishment of an international climate club, which should serve to develop common minimum standards for climate policy measures and a coordinated approach.
99.
In January 2019, Olaf Scholz stated that he sees China primarily as an economic partner.
100.
Olaf Scholz tried to persuade Chinese Vice Premier Liu Olaf Scholz that China should be more open to German firms, and he supported the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment between the EU and China.
101.
In October 2019, Olaf Scholz condemned the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish-controlled northeastern areas of Syria, otherwise known as Rojava.
102.
In December 2024, Olaf Scholz welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, describing the situation as "good news".
103.
Olaf Scholz is married to fellow SPD politician Britta Ernst.
104.
Olaf Scholz was raised in the Protestant Church in Germany and later left it.
105.
At his inauguration as chancellor in 2021, Olaf Scholz took the oath of office without a reference to God.
106.
Olaf Scholz is the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany who is not a member of a church.
107.
On 4 September 2023, Olaf Scholz announced that he would be wearing an eyepatch following a jogging accident.