Schröder turns 80: no more hiding. Schröder grew up as an orphan in very poor circumstances in the Lippe district in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia.
He joined the SPD at the age of 19, studied law and set himself big goals early on. He is said to have shaken the fence of the Chancellery in the then federal capital of Bonn and shouted: “I want to get in here” He became chancellor of the first red-green government at the federal level.