“The Federal Chancellor congratulates the former Federal Chancellor on his special birthday, as usual in the form of a congratulatory letter,” said a government spokeswoman when asked. According to a party spokesman, the SPD leaders Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil also congratulated “in writing”.
Schröder was born on April 7, 1944 in Mossenberg in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005 and chairman of the SPD from 1999 to 2004. Because he did not break off his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s attack on Ukraine and continued to work as a lobbyist for the Russian energy industry, the party leadership broke with him. However, a party expulsion procedure against him filed by several SPD branches failed last year.
Schröder had sharply attacked the SPD leadership before his birthday. In a dpa interview in mid-March, he described the party leadership as “people that I can only take politically seriously to a limited extent.” He later followed up again in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “What really saddens me is the provincialism of the current leadership figures,” he said, adding, referring to the poll numbers: “If I had been at 15 percent, I would have resigned immediately.”
In 2014, the SPD honored its former chancellor and former chairman on his 70th birthday – shortly after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea – with a ceremony in the Berlin art museum Hamburger Bahnhof. That won’t happen this time. Instead, Schröder will celebrate privately in Berlin on April 27th. The guest list is still being kept under wraps. “My wife does that and it’s a secret,” said Schröder in the dpa interview. “I know that friends will definitely be invited. But I don’t know any more details.”
According to a media report, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also a party friend, congratulated Schröder with a short letter on official stationery. The newspaper “Bild am Sonntag” quoted from the letter that Steinmeier sent his “heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for your health and that of your family.” “I wish you a nice celebration and good conversations with family and friends on this special day of honor,” it continues.
Steinmeier was a long-time companion of Schröder during his time as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and later as Federal Chancellor; from 1999 to 2005 he was Schröder’s Chancellery Minister. After the start of the Russian war of aggression, Steinmeier publicly distanced himself from Schröder.
