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Profile: German President-elect Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Xinhua, February 13, 2017 Adjust font size:

German former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected as German president by German Federal Assembly on Sunday, succeeding the outgoing President Joachim Gauck.

The following is a brief introduction of the new elected German president:

Steinmeier was born on Jan. 5, 1956 in the city of Detmold, Germany. He studied law and politics at Giessen University and obtained his doctorate of law in 1991.

He started out as a legal adviser in the state of Lower Saxony in 1991 and held a series of senior positions, including chief of staff to Social Democrat chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1999.

After the federal election in 2005, Steinmeier was appointed foreign minister in the first grand coalition government of Angela Merkel. And in 2007, he was appointed vice chancellor in the grand coalition.

Steinmeier ran unsuccessfully as a chancellor candidate against Merkel of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the federal election in 2009, and returned to the opposition benches as head of the Social Democrats' parliamentary group.

Steinmeier was again appointed foreign minister in Merkel's third coalition in 2013.

On Feb. 12, 2017, Steinmeier received 931 votes of 1,239 valid votes and was elected the 12th president of Germany.

Steinmeier is married and has a daughter. Endit