Made in Germany: Mannomannomann - The Schulz Story

When he first announced his candidacy for chancellor, ex-European Parliament President Martin Schulz rocketed upward in the opinion polls he then became leader of the German center-left Social Democratic Party SPD in March 2017 by a historic 100 % vote. 

Polls also showed Schulz leading Merkel if Germans could elect their chancellor directly. 

But his slide during the campaign against Angela Merkel was just as dramatic. 

The man who speaks besides his native German, 5 European languages and who was President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017and the Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2004 to 2012  

was described by conservative media and in social media as former alcohol addict, country bumpkin and just a former small town mayor of his West German home town Würselen. 

The SPD party campaign was mainly focused on social justice in Germany but without a philosophical and academic vision and plan behind it.  

His speaker and speech writers in the campaign missed to highlight his former career and reputation for his leadership and work in Europe and as SPD party member in leading positions. He joined the party at the age of 19. 

Since then he spoke up for decent wage agreements, secure and lasting jobs, employee participation in decision-making and the examination of the social justification for claims and payments. 

Read here the award winning story by Markus Feldenkirchen: 

English: 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/martin-schulz-inside-the-failed-campaign-a-1172210.html 

German: 

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/martin-schulz-die-story-seiner-gescheiterten-kampagne-a-1170957.html