Hans Eichel (born December 24, 1941 in
KasselKassel Kassel Kassel and of the district (Kreis) of the same name...
),
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
politician (
SPDThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
), was Minister of Finance from 1999-2005.
He was brought up in
KasselKassel Kassel Kassel and of the district (Kreis) of the same name...
where he did his
AbiturAbitur is a designation used in Germany and Finland for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling...
in 1961. He then completed a degree in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
at the universities of
MarburgMarburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Its population is 78,701, and its geographical position is .- Founding and early history :...
and
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, graduating in 1970. After that, he worked as a teacher in a Kassel
GymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
.
From 1975 to 1991, he was the
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
of Kassel, initially gaining the office at the age of only 33.
Hans Eichel (born December 24, 1941 in
KasselKassel Kassel Kassel and of the district (Kreis) of the same name...
),
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
politician (
SPDThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
), was Minister of Finance from 1999-2005.
Background
He was brought up in
KasselKassel Kassel Kassel and of the district (Kreis) of the same name...
where he did his
AbiturAbitur is a designation used in Germany and Finland for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling...
in 1961. He then completed a degree in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
and
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
at the universities of
MarburgMarburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Its population is 78,701, and its geographical position is .- Founding and early history :...
and
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, graduating in 1970. After that, he worked as a teacher in a Kassel
GymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
.
Political career
From 1975 to 1991, he was the
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
of Kassel, initially gaining the office at the age of only 33. From 1991 to 1999, he was Premier (
Ministerpräsident) of
HesseHesse is a state of Germany with an area of and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contributes the largest share to the Rhine Main Area....
in a coalition with the Greens. The coalition won again four years later and was the first red-green coalition to serve two consecutive terms. However, he unexpectedly lost the state elections in February 1999 to
Roland KochRoland Koch is a German politician and Minister-President of Hesse. He took office on April 7 1999, immediately becoming President of the Bundesrat, completing the term begun by his predecessor as Minister President, Hans Eichel.In 1979 Koch became the youngest person to hold the office of...
's CDU and lost his office. However, in March
Oskar LafontaineOskar Lafontaine is a German politician, former German finance minister, former chairman of the Social Democratic Party and former prime minister of the state of Saarland...
resigned as German finance minister and Eichel replaced him a month later. Eichel also served as
PresidentIn Germany, the President of the Bundesrat is the chairperson or speaker of the Bundesrat. The presidency of the Bundesrat rotates among the minister-presidents of each of the federal Länder on an annual basis...
of the
BundesratThe German Bundesrat is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder of Germany at the federal level...
from November 1998 to April 1999. He has been a member of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
since 2002, but has announced to retire in 2009.
At the beginning of his term of office, he tried to decrease the German federal deficit and wanted a balanced budget until 2006. Initially he was successful and earned the nickname Iron Hans or Iron Minister because of his ability to exercise strict budget discipline. Despite initial success, due to constraints by the cabinet and by the worsening economic situation after the short boom in 1999/2000, he had to abandon these plans. Moreover, during the 2002 election campaign when the SPD was suffering from bad opinion poll figures, it was speculated that Eichel could become Vice Chancellor under a new Chancellor
Edmund StoiberEdmund Rüdiger Stoiber is a German politician, former minister-president of the state of Bavaria and former chairman of the Christian Social Union...
. Schröder was not happy with this and though he was kept as minister in the cabinet, Eichel had fallen from grace. After the election Eichel had to recalculate the budget due to the deteriorating economy and found that he would have $18 billion less taxes than expected. The German budget deficit soared to 3.8%, the highest of all EU members (also above the 3% limit set by the EU's Stability Pact. Eichel missed to push the deficit below 3% for the rest of his tennure until 2005.
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