Wolfgang Schäuble, who was notably Minister of Finance for years in Germany and one of the architects of the reunification of his country in 1990, has died at the age of 81.
“Wolfgang Schäuble shaped our country for more than half a century: as a deputy, minister and president of the Bundestag. With him, Germany loses a sharp thinker, a passionate politician and a pugnacious democrat”, greeted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a message on X (formerly Twitter) published Wednesday morning.
His death had previously been announced to AFP by a source close to the German conservative party, of which Mr. Schäuble was a member for decades, and which he chaired at the end of the 1990s.
The politician, who served as a member of the Bundestag for more than 50 years, died sleeping “peacefully” on Tuesday evening, a source close to the family explained to the German daily Bild.
Paraplegic since an attack in 1990, Wolfgang Schäuble was one of the most notable figures in German political life of the last 30 years, ending his long career as President of the Chamber of Deputies between 2017 and 2021.
Elected from 1972, he was a minister five times, under Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel.
Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, on the border with France, he was a tireless campaigner for Franco-German rapprochement and European construction.
He worked on the negotiation and signing of the treaty to reunify the two Germanys in 1990 but was then best known as Minister of Finance, where he embodied the budgetary rigor that Berlin promoted in Europe, particularly during the financial crisis in the euro zone. .