23 Facts About Oskar Lafontaine

Oskar Lafontaine served as Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998 and was federal leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1995 to 1999.

Oskar Lafontaine was the lead candidate for the SPD in the 1990 German federal election, but lost by a wide margin.

Oskar Lafontaine served as Minister of Finance under Chancellor Gerhard Schroder after the SPD's victory in the 1998 federal election, but resigned from both the ministry and Bundestag less than six months later, positioning himself as a popular opponent of Schroder's policies in the tabloid press.

Oskar Lafontaine announced his resignation from all federal political functions after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009.

Oskar Lafontaine retained his position as a member of the Saarland legislature and from May 2012 to 2022 he was the leader of the opposition in Saarland.

Oskar Lafontaine resigned from the Left Party on 17 March 2022 because it was no longer an "alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality," he said.

Oskar Lafontaine was born in Saarlautern into a family of craftsmen.

Oskar Lafontaine's father, Hans Lafontaine, was a professional baker and was killed serving in World War II.

Oskar Lafontaine spent his childhood living with his mother, Katharina, and his twin brother, Hans, in Dillingen.

Oskar Lafontaine attended a Catholic episcopal boarding institution in Prum and there was educated at the Regino-Gymnasium, a public school.

Oskar Lafontaine left school in 1962 and received a scholarship from Cusanuswerk, the scholarship body of the Catholic Church in Germany, to study physics at the universities of Bonn and Saarland.

Oskar Lafontaine graduated in 1969; his thesis concerned the production of monocrystalline barium titanate.

Oskar Lafontaine worked for Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft Saarbrucken until 1974, serving on its board from 1971.

Oskar Lafontaine has been married four times and has two sons by his second and third wives.

Oskar Lafontaine was married to Ingrid Bachert from 1967 to 1982.

In November 2011, Oskar Lafontaine officially presented fellow politician Sahra Wagenknecht as his new girlfriend, who is 26 years his junior.

Oskar Lafontaine was the SPD's candidate for Chancellor in the German federal election of 1990.

Oskar Lafontaine was mainly responsible for bringing the whole political weight of the SPD to bear against Kohl and his CDU party, rejecting bipartisan cooperation that had characterized German politics for many years.

Oskar Lafontaine argued that any help given to Kohl would only lengthen his unavoidable demise.

Oskar Lafontaine joined the WASG on 18 June 2005 and was selected to head their list for the 2005 Federal Election in North Rhine-Westphalia on the same day.

In 2024, Oskar Lafontaine announced that he had joined the Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht.

At one event in 2005, Oskar Lafontaine described Fremdarbeiter as a threat to German labour.

Oskar Lafontaine said afterwards that he had misspoken, but in an article published in Die Welt, a group of prominent German writers accused him of deliberately appealing to xenophobic and far-right voters.