"Schroeder Legacy: Seven Years of a Germany Going Nowhere"

Last week, the International Herald Tribune published an article by John Vinocur on the legacy of seven years of Gerhard Schroeder as German Chancellor. Vinocur's analysis is fair, unflinching and deeply incisive. Unfortunately, we have seen far too few articles of this kind in German in the German media. For the past few weeks it seems as if Schroeder's failings have been largely swept under the rug.

Here are just a few excerpts from the Vinocur article. (READ IT HERE):

"After seven years in office, Gerhard Schröder, while asking voters again for their confidence, is running against his own incontrovertible piece of German history.

Slick, tough, metallically charming but vague on convictions, and barren of an inspirational vision for revitalizing a stalled nation, Schröder, a man the polls say has only the thinnest chances of winning a third term, is very arguably the most conspicuous failure among postwar Germany's seven chancellors. (...)

He had seven years to turn the German economy around, did not, and seems ready to leave it in deeper zero-growth stagnation and double-digit joblessness than he found it. The former East Germany, with about 20 percent unemployment, has floundered in despair, with the result that a new reactionary party of old Communists and far-left renegades from Schröder's own Social Democrats will probably be that region's biggest vote-getter two Sundays from now.

In Germany's external relations, decades of even-handedness became a hard-to-reckon jumble of self-promotional and short-term manuevering.

Over two terms, Schröder was involved in the breakdown of the German-French leadership motor for Europe, in Germany's alienation of much of Eastern Europe through his closed-circuit friendship with Russia, and the worst relations imaginable with the United States (…)

Above all, Schröder is likely go down in history as the embodiment of the last phase German system of rule-laden capitalism and dominant special interests that in many respects have drained the country's vitality.

His trimming, his stalling and lack of resolve, his absence of great leadership in pushing economic change, his fiddling with the solid global relationships that shook the widespread trust Germany gathered over decades (think of Schröder's collapsed plan to lift the EU's arms embargo to China and, later, Beijing's realpolitik payback in refusing to support the German blueprint for Security Council expansion) - these factors constitute the dark, closing backdrop of change to come.

It is this idea of seven years of a Germany going nowhere, without the coherent leadership to break out of its stagnancy, that strikes me as the heart of Schröder's failure."

Be sure you read the entire thing.

Comments

[joe]

While this is probably a fair assessment, it is also a bit early to rank where Gerhard will rank among the leaders of germany.

What is both interesting and confusing is when Gerhard tells his audience that germany is heading in the right direction and they cheer.

[Doug]

Let him broker a couple horrible deals and get attacked by a rabbit and you've got Germany's own Jimmy Carter.

[joe]

I only thought there were Killer Rabbits in Georgia.

[Don]

"it is also a bit early to rank where Gerhard will rank among the leaders of germany"

Surely not with Bismark and Adenauer, surely not even with Kohl. Surely not even with Willy Brandt.

I think he'll be right up there with some of the post-Bismark prime ministers who served Willhelm III. The ones who lost the Russian alliance.....

Jimmy Carter is another apt comparison.

[Tyranno]

Schroeder reminds me of a Bill Clinton, who, it always seemed to me, we foisted on an unsuspecting world and are still undoing the damage. Skills? Sure, but attached to no discernable vision or end state beyond simply their remaining in power.

The western world seems to be full of these types of "leaders" these days. Squishy, souless men who react/focus on the immediate because their only purpose is self aggrandizement. Politics exists solely as a platform through which they can display their very unique 'excellence' to us proles. . . and long term consequences be damned.
I still have distinct memories of Clinton once telling an audience that, "Hey, you all don't know how lucky you are! A leader like me comes along maybe once every hundred years!" Most of us were very happy about the truth in that statement. Or, in his memoirs when he lamented that he didn't have any grand opportunities (9/11) to show how great a president he could be!!!" Narcissistic and perverse are the words that come to mind.

Clinton, Schroeder, Chirac are a vacuous lot that history, and perhaps the law, will not be kind to. Clinton does not fair well in any historical ranking of Presidents that I have seen, usually he falls in the mediocre to average category. Though in popularity polls he does better, always preferred to CarrotTop but less popular than 50-cent.
Watching from the distance I am not sure Herr Schroeder could beat CarrotTop right now. I don't know how long or even if one can undo the damage he has left in his wake. For me Schroeder will always represent the man who legitimized anti-American bigotry for public consumption. Pity.

Tyranno