Word: der
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fact that an issue like tax reform generates so much excitement says a lot about the zeitgeist in Germany today--and helps explain why the government of Gerhard Schröder was voted out last month after seven years in power. Following weeks of wrangling, the country's major parties agreed last week to form a coalition government headed by Angela Merkel, 51, who stands to become the first female Chancellor in German history. The victory of Merkel and her Christian Democratic Party marks a generational shift in German politics. Young voters who once were worried about social issues say they...
...social straitjacket of the 1950s and the legacy of Nazism. Fischer, who among other assorted jobs worked as a taxi driver, brought some of that contrarian spirit into German political life, famously clashing with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the eve of the Iraq war. Schröder was not a radical but shared his cohort's progressive outlook and freewheeling lifestyle. (Schröder and Fischer have eight marriages between them.) "They all wore suits and ties to the office," says Walter Lindner, a Fischer aide. But "in their heads they saw themselves as from the counterculture...
...incumbents. And although the Greens maintained their share of the vote at 8%, it was another small party, the Free Democratic Party (fdp), that attracted new and younger voters, many under 30, to edge ahead of Fischer's party with 10%. Fischer and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder were the first German leaders born too late to feel implicated in Germany's Nazi past. One result was a bolder, more assertive German foreign policy and a willingness for the first time since 1945 to deploy German combat troops abroad. Schröder, 61, may yet find a way to hang...
...turned humanitarian interventionist backed German troop participation in Kosovo and later questioned Donald Rumsfeld on the eve of the Iraq war. ("Excuse me, I am not convinced," he told the U.S. Defense Secretary about claims that weapons of mass destruction were hidden in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.) Schröder was not an active '68er. But he too absorbed the values of the protesters and their hunger for social justice. His ready grin and populist touch were for many young Germans a welcome relief from Helmut Kohl, his predecessor as Chancellor, whose fondness for woollen sweaters and oompah brass bands...
...flexible than our parents' generation. But we also live with a lot more insecurity." Last week, Gugath tuned into a favorite radio show aimed at helping young Germans find work. The jobs they were looking at were in Australia. In 2002, Gugath voted for the Greens and Schröder's Social Democrats; last month she ticked the Christian Democrat box. "I'm a little embarrassed to tell my friends about it," she admits. "But something has to happen. Germany needs this kind of a signal for change." The biggest winner from the generational shift...