Germany lays to rest political giant Wolfgang Schäuble

Top politicians from across the spectrum were among the mourners at a funeral service for conservative Christian Democrat politician Wolfgang Schäuble in the southwestern German city of Offenburg on Friday.

Those in attendance included Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Christian Democrat (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz and Baden-Württemberg state Premier Winfried Kretschmann of the Green Party.

What was said at the service?

Bishop of Baden Heike Springhart, who conducted the service, described Schäuble as a persistent fighter for democracy and a far-sighted European.

"Wolfgang Schäuble was an independent spirit who did not shy away from controversy, but he was not a lone fighter. He was undaunted — even in the face of the finite nature of life," she said in her sermon.

Springhart also addressed an assassination attempt in 1990, in which a mentally ill man shot Schäuble and as a result, he was confined to a wheelchair.

"Wolfgang Schäuble has shown himself and all of us what is possible," Springhart said.

Schäuble's coffin was accompanied at the service by a solemn funeral procession through Offenburg's city center to the city's cemetery. A smaller select group gathered there for the burial.

How was Schäuble so influential?

Schäuble was first elected to the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, in 1972, for the Offenburg constituency. He was a member of parliament for over half a century until his death, making him the longest-serving parliamentarian in Germany's postwar history.

One of former Chancellor Angela Merkel's closest confidants, Schäuble had himself once been seen as a likely successor to long-serving Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Schäuble became Germany's interior minister in 1989 and the events of that year catapulted him into the limelight. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he played a key role in negotiating the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

He is also recognized for his time as Germany's finance minister, steering the eurozone through its debt crisis with sometimes unpopular measures, like pressuring Greece to accept tough austerity measures.

Despite the crisis, Schäuble was able to achieve a federal budget without new debt for Germany, a target dubbed the "black zero." 

In October 2017, Schäuble became Bundestag president. Although the role largely deals with the in-and-outs of the legislative process, it is also, officially, the second-highest political position in the country, after the federal president and ahead of the chancellor. 

Schäuble died on December 26, aged 81, after a long illness and there was praise for his career from across party lines. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Schäuble a "stroke of luck for German history."

There will also be a ceremony at Berlin's Reichstag building on January 22 when Steinmeier and other high-profile guests, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, are expected to attend.

rc/sms (DPA, AFP, EPD)

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