Wolfgang Schaeuble

The memoirs of former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble were recently released in Germany. As expected, Greece features heavily.

His political career lasted over half a century; it was full of crises, scandals, even an assassination attempt. But some of the most dramatic passages in the memoirs of Wolfgang Schaeuble (September 18,1942 - December 26, 2023) concern Greece.

Wolfgang Schaeuble resembled a commanding political figure in both Germany and Europe. It would not be an overstatement to assert that, for a substantial span of challenging years, the Eurogroup operated within the sphere of his influence - member-states actively sought his favor, aligning themselves with his policy initiatives.

In an interview with Kathimerini, Dr Peter Schoof, the former German ambassador to Athens during the challenging period from 2014 to 2017, reflects on the recent passing of Germany's former finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, stating, "No other German politician has asked me regularly about the situation of the 'ordinary Greek' as he did."

Before the tumultuous year of 2015, Greece actually came close to leaving the eurozone in 2012, following the election of Antonis Samaras as prime minister. Chancellor Angela Merkel was notably apprehensive about the New Democracy leader's pre-election campaign. 

I met Wolfgang Schaeuble twice. The first one was in 2017, literally on his last day as Finance Minister. As I was entering the ministry building, they were moving boxes containing his archives, which made me wonder how many documents related to Greece were among them.

There was no need for Wolfgang Schaeuble to depart this futile world for us to grasp that he was despised by a section of the Greek population. Germany's former finance minister was held accountable for what we endured during the bailout period.

Wolfgang Schaeuble assumed the role of Germany's finance minister in late October 2009, serving in this capacity for a full eight years. During this period, he collaborated, beginning with my own appointment a few weeks earlier, with nine successive Greek finance ministers. This observation alone serves as a clear indication of the impact he had on navigating the eurozone and Greek crises.

Without Wolfgang Schaeuble's strong political presence, it is doubtful that the eurozone would have been able to face the monumental challenge of an economic crisis within its own borders and, above all, cope with the Greek crisis by taking initiatives that went beyond the narrow framework of the Treaties and required the allocation of hefty funds.

"I can now observe my life as it comes to an end. I find it exciting to observe myself," Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's former finance minister, said in one of the last interviews he gave before his death on Tuesday. "Yes, I feel lonely," he told Der Spiegel magazine a month ago.