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Politics

The players

Who are the candidates and where did they come from? DW-WORLD takes a detailed looks at the events the shaped the past of the 2005 election's top players.

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Image: AP

The election is over, but apart from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, many of the big players will continue to play a role in the coming years.

Who are they and where did they come from? DW-WORLD takes a detailed look at the events that shaped the biographies of the 2005 election's top players.

Gerhard Schröder was at the top of the incumbent Social Democrats' list, and current coalition partner, the Green party, put Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in charge of their campaign.

On the other side of the aisle, the conservative Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister-party the Christian Social Union were led by Angela Merkel -- the first woman to ever run for chancellor.

The free-market liberal Free Democratic Party wanted to see their boss, Guido Westewelle, come out on top.

The recently-formed Left Party, made up of the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to the East German communist party, and the alternative left-wing party WASG is presented a double-ticket with Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine to voters.

DW-WORLD takes a detailed look at each party's top candidates below.

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