Schröder, Gerhard (1944–)

Gerhard Schröder was German chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He also was prime minister of Lower Saxony from 1990 to 1998 and chairman of the Social Democrats from 1999 to 2004. Schröder is especially known as Germany's first media chancellor or the first chancellor of the arising media democracy.

When Schröder first ran for prime minister of the state of Lower Saxony in 1986, he had already made his biography the subject of public discussion. It would become one of his main strategies throughout his career to make use of his simple origin and the fact that he grew up without a father yet achieved great success. In addition to constructing the image of a promising social leader, Schröder also capitalized on his private life for political benefit at other occasions: Now married for the fourth time, Schröder always tended to use his spouses for public relation purposes. The fact that the Social Democrat and his third wife appeared on several non-political TV shows and allowed stories about their home life led to their image as the “Clintons of Lower Saxony.” As a consequence, a “War of the Roses” situation arose when the couple split up that even the quality press could not ignore. It seemed that whenever it came to presenting politics in a popular way, Schröder would be at the forefront: Posing in expensive suits in a flashy magazine and allowing the public to be present when meeting with newly discovered relatives are only a couple of examples. In particular, the social democratic election campaigns in 1998, 2002, and 2005, during which the focus was put on the chancellor candidate Schröder rather than on his party, led to his image as a showman.

Even this brief review of Schröder's behavior in relation to the media shows that he can be regarded as a politician who knew the rules of journalism, accepted them, and used them in his favor. However, although Schröder worked with and not against the media– contrary to his predecessor in chancellorship Helmut Kohl—it should not be forgotten that the changes in the relation between media and politics often connected with the Schröder era cannot be attributed to the former chancellor's personality alone. It should be recognized that Schröder's chancellorship coincided with a time in which politics had to deal with the challenges of a more volatile electorate as well as a more commercialized and differentiated media market. On account of this, “fun chancellor” Schröder's so-called lifestyle politics can be regarded as a good example of the response of politics to these challenges.