The media savvy maverick Chancellor

young and charismatic, gerhard schroeder is an antithesis to his rather dour predecessors. he has risen from the streets and says so with aplomb. when schroeder unseated helmut kohl, who had a 16-year marathon run as chancellor, it was seen as a reaffirmation of a latter day western trend away from conservative governments. he joined younger, left-of-centre politicians like bill clinton and tony blair, a shift from the world of kohl, ronald reagan and margaret thatcher.related stories the maverick german leader, who before his election had been dismissed by kohl as "a media event", is seen as a refreshing alternative. for schroeder, who at 56 is the first top german leader to be too young to have personal memories of world war ii, belies the stodgy image of the german politician. he is media-savvy, is dressed in well-tailored dark suits and his preference for cuban cigars is well known. he has also been married four times, the last time around to doris koepf, a journalist 19 years his junior . schroeder has been praised the world over for his charisma, his interest in economics and his handling of the media. but he has also faced his share of criticism, chief among them that he is an opportunist without convictions. he admits he is a "climber" and not ashamed of his modest beginnings. the german chancellor was born on april 7, 1944 to a poor protestant family in mossenburg in the north german state of lower saxony. that same year his father was killed in battle in romania. his mother raised five children working as a cleaning woman. at 14, schroeder left school to take up various part-time jobs while attending classes at goettingen university, where he earned a law degree in 1976. as a young lawyer, schroeder became active in the social democratic party (spd) and was appointed head of the party's youth wing, the young socialists, in 1978. he was first elected to the bundestag, germany's lower house of parliament, in 1980. schroeder was initially associated with the far-left wing of the spd, but gradually shifted toward the political centre during his career. in 1986, he was elected head of the political opposition in lower saxony and was named to the spd's national executive body. he became lower saxony's premier in 1990, when the spd formed a ruling coalition with the greens. in april 1998, the spd nominated schroeder as its candidate for chancellor. the party won the national election and gerhard schroeder was elected the seventh chancellor of the federal republic of germany on 27 october that year. a 1982 incident best defines schroeder. it was the year that helmut kohl became chancellor. an inebriated schroeder, a little known legislator then, is said to have shaken the gates of the chancellor's office and shouted "i want to get in there". the rest is history.