German political heavyweight Wolfgang Schaeuble dies at 81

BERLIN: Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of the most important figures in German politics and an icon of budgetary rigour in the eurozone, has died aged 81, the German parliament said Wednesday.

Schaeuble, who was a minister under chancellors Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel and also played a key role in German reunification in 1990, died peacefully in the night, the Bild daily reported.

The current Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Schaeuble had “shaped our country for more than half a century”.

“Germany has lost a sharp thinker, passionate politician and pugnacious democrat,” Scholz wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Born in Freiburg in 1942, Schaeuble was the longest-serving member of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, where he had sat since 1972.

It was under former conservative leader Kohl that the pro-European Schaeuble forged his career, rising through the ranks to eventually become the leader’s chief of staff, and he was long seen as the chancellor’s heir apparent.

Personal tragedy

Together they oversaw Germany’s national reunification, before personal tragedy struck Schaeuble — an assassination attempt by a deranged man in 1990 left him badly injured and forced him to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

As finance minister for several years under Merkel, Schaeuble carved out a reputation as the guardian of German budgetary rigour, particularly during the Greek debt crisis.

“There is hardly another politician who has shaped recent German history and our democratic culture as much as Wolfgang Schaeuble,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X, praising his “outstanding services to German and European unification”.

The son of a conservative politician, Schaeuble was known for his biting wit and unerring sense of duty. He was married with four children.

His biographer Peter Schuetz described him as the “most honest man” he knew, “even if he’s not always the most charming”.

After a slush-fund scandal shattered Kohl’s reputation in the 1990s, Schaeuble spent a period in the political wilderness before making a comeback in 2002.

While Merkel refused to back him two years later for the role of federal president — instead picking former International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler — he became interior minister the following year.

Schaeuble was criticised by civil liberties groups for curbing rights in response to the threat of extremist attacks.

However, Merkel rewarded him in 2009 when she tapped him for the more high-profile finance ministry.