Profile Text
Steinmeier in 2016, photo by antvlk /Bigstock.com
Place of Birth: Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany (now Germany)
Date of Birth: 5 January, 1956
Ethnicity: German
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is a German politician. He has been President of Germany, since 19 March, 2017. He has also been Head of the State Chancellery of Lower Saxony, from 30 October, 1996 to 27 October, 1998, State Secretary at the Chancellery/Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services, from 27 October, 1998 to 22 November, 2005, Head of the Chancellery, from 31 July, 1999 to 22 November, 2005, Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 22 November, 2005 to 27 October, 2009, and again, from 17 December, 2013 to 27 January, 2017; Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic Party, from 26 October, 2007 to 13 November, 2009; Vice-Chancellor of Germany, from 21 November, 2007 to 27 October, 2009; (Acting) Leader of the Social Democratic Party, from 7 September, 2008 to 18 October, 2008; Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag, from 29 September, 2009 to 16 December, 2013; and Leader of the Opposition, from 28 October, 2009 to 16 December, 2013; as well as, a Member of the Bundestag for Brandenburg an der Havel/Potsdam-Mittelmark I/Havelland III/Teltow-Fläming I, from 27 October, 2009 to 19 March, 2017.
Frank-Walter’s father, Walter Gustav Reinhold Steinmeier, was affiliated with the Church of Lippe, one of Germany’s few Calvinist regional church bodies. Frank’s mother, Ursula (Broy), was born in Breslau, and came as a refugee from a Lutheran part of Silesia during the flight and expulsion of Germans after WWII. Frank-Walter was in the Bundeswehr, from 1974 to 1976.
Frank-Walter is married to judge Elke Büdenbender, with whom he has a daughter.
Source: Biography of Frank-Walter Steinmeier – Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Die Biografie , 2017, by Torben Lütjen, Lars Geiges