born April 7, 1944, Mossenberg, near Detmold, Ger.
Chancellor of Germany.
In his youth he joined the Social Democratic Party and the Young Socialists, and, as a law student at Göttingen, he participated in the student protests of 1968. He served in the Bundestag (1980–86), and he succeeded to the premiership of the state of Lower Saxony in 1990. His election as federal chancellor in 1998 ended 16 years of conservative rule under Helmut Kohl . Despite continuing high unemployment in Germany, Schröder led his Social Democratic–Green coalition to victory in 2002, and he was reelected chancellor.