Wolfgang Schäuble

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. 

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.

"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.

Wolfgang Schaeuble was an emblem in German politics, one of the pioneers of European integration, a catalyst in the unification of the two Germanies - he probably made it happen on the economic front - and, of course, one of Europe's longest-serving MPs, having served in the Bundestag for more than 50 years.

In October 1990 Schäuble was shot by a mentally ill man during a campaign rally and was since been confined to a wheelchair

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis more than two decades later, has died. He was 81.

Schaeuble died at home on Tuesday evening, his family told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.

The legend of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) passed away in his sleep.
Schuble, who was part of the Bundestag for more than 50 years, is survived by his wife, four children and four grandchildren.
He was born in Freiburg in 1942, where he studied, and then he studied at the University of Hamburg.

The long-awaited visit of Foreign Minister Analena Berbock (of the Greens) may have been canceled due to covid, but the line-up of top German politicians in Greece is no way over. On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visited Thessaloniki for a "Balkan dinner".

Angela Merkel took another step towards resigning from politics today after receiving an official document for her dismissal from the post of chancellor, where she spent 16 years, the Associated Press reported.

Merkel attended today the first session of the new German parliament, but sat in the gallery for VIP guests. Merkel was elected to the Bundestag 31 years ago.

On Saturday, 1,001 delegates of the Christian Democratic Union will elect their new leader.