Chat Club with Peer Steinbrück

" Things won't stay the same," says Peer Steinbrück in our chat club. "We will not be able to maintain our prosperity without effort" - that is Peer Steinbrück's opinion. Listen to our podcast to find out why.

Peer Steinbrück is a financial and economic expert and a veteran of German politics.

As Federal Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2009, he proved his skills as a crisis manager during the financial crisis. Committed and with a high level of expertise, he is held in high esteem by his party colleagues and political opponents alike. He has helped shape politics in Germany for many years and continues to be an important voice in the debates of our time - especially on financial and monetary policy issues.

In our Chat Club, he also shows his very private side and explains, among other things, why he was categorised as a security risk by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the 1970s and what impact this had on his professional career.

Peer Steinbrück describes his path into politics and his memories of the Barschel-Engholm affair, in his eyes "the biggest domestic political scandal that had occurred up to that point".
I talk to him about his time as Federal Finance Minister, which was very turbulent due to the financial crisis, and about the question of whether he would give his successor advice. He also admits that he is very depressed that Chancellor Scholz is talking about a turning point, but politicians are acting as if everything can stay as it is.

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