Frank-Walter Steinmeier

His Excellency Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Steinmeier in 2018
President of the Federal Republic of Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 March 2017
Chancellor	Angela Merkel Olaf Scholz
Preceded by	Joachim Gauck
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 17 December 2013 – 27 January 2017
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Guido Westerwelle
Succeeded by	Sigmar Gabriel
In office 22 November 2005 – 27 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Joschka Fischer
Succeeded by	Guido Westerwelle
Vice Chancellor of Germany
In office 21 November 2007 – 27 October 2009
Chancellor	Angela Merkel
Preceded by	Franz Müntefering
Succeeded by	Guido Westerwelle
Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag
In office 27 October 2009 – 16 December 2013
Chief Whip	Thomas Oppermann
Preceded by	Peter Struck
Succeeded by	Thomas Oppermann
Leader of the Social Democratic Party acting
In office 7 September 2008 – 18 October 2008
Deputy	Andrea Nahles Peer Steinbrück Himself
Preceded by	Kurt Beck
Succeeded by	Franz Müntefering
Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office 26 October 2007 – 13 November 2009
Leader	Kurt Beck Himself (acting) Franz Müntefering
Preceded by	Bärbel Dieckmann
Succeeded by	Olaf Scholz
Chief of the Federal Chancellery
In office 31 July 1999 – 22 November 2005
Chancellor	Gerhard Schröder
Preceded by	Bodo Hombach
Succeeded by	Thomas de Maizière
Member of the Bundestag for Brandenburg an der Havel
In office 27 September 2009 – 19 March 2017
Preceded by	Margrit Spielmann
Succeeded by	Dietlind Tiemann
Personal details
Born	(1956-01-05) 5 January 1956 (age 68) Detmold, West Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Elke Büdenbender ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	Merit Steinmeier
Alma mater	Giessen University
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Germany
Branch/service	Bundeswehr
Years of service	1974-1976
Unit	Air Force (Luftwaffe)

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (born 5 January 1956) is a German politician. He was Foreign Secretary, Vice Chancellor of Germany and is currently the twelfth President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Steinmeier was born in Detmold in 1956.^[1] After his abitur (secondary school exam) and his military service, he studied law in Gießen.^[1] In 1982, he passed his first exam. His second exam was completed and passed in 1986.^[source?] Between 1986 and 1991, he worked as assistant to the Doctor of Public Law and Political Science at the Gießen University.^[2] He obtained his Doctorate of Law in 1991.

After 1991, he worked in the State Chancellory of Lower Saxony for the Minister-President, Gerhard Schröder. From 1998, he was Undersecretary of State in Gerhard Schröder's Chancellor Office after Schröder became Chancellor of Germany.^[3] In 1999 he became Secretary of State.

In 2005, he became the new Foreign Minister of Germany in the coalition cabinet of Angela Merkel. He became Vice Chancellor of Germany in 2007. In 2008 he was elected to be the chancellor candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for the election in 2009. The SPD got their worst result ever in a German federal election (23.0%), and Steinmeier became leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

From 2013 to 2017 he was again Foreign Minister.

Since 19 March 2017 he has been President of Germany, succeeding Joachim Gauck. He was re-elected in 2022 in a landslide victory.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Araloff, Simon (2005-10-14). ""Frank Walter Steinmeier — Curator of Germany's Secret Services Will Shape Foreign Policy". Global Challenges Research. Archived from the original on 2008-03-21. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
2. ↑ http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/fileadmin/hpi/veranstaltungen/china/slides/conference_binder.pdf Archived 2012-01-14 at the Wayback Machine "1986 - 1991 Academic assistant, Chair of Public Law and Political Science, Department of Law, Giessen University"
3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2008-10-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)