Key figures: Angela Merkel (CDU leader), Gerhard Schröder (SPD incumbent Chancellor), Franz Müntefering (SPD negotiator and future Vice-Chancellor), Horst Seehofer (CSU), Edmund Stoiber (CSU leader)
Summary
On September 18, 2005, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) narrowly defeated incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) in a closely fought German federal election. The CDU/CSU received 35.2% of the vote versus 34.2% for the SPD — a margin of roughly 500,000 votes — but neither coalition commanded an outright Bundestag majority. After seven weeks of coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD, the two parties formed Germany’s third grand coalition government. On November 22, 2005, the Bundestag elected Merkel as Chancellor with 397 votes in favor, 202 against, and 12 abstentions, making her the first woman, first chancellor raised in former East Germany, and youngest person at age 51 to hold the office.
Election Results
The 2005 federal election was called early after Schröder’s SPD suffered a sharp defeat in the May 2005 North Rhine-Westphalia state election, prompting him to engineer a confidence vote he intentionally lost in order to trigger early dissolution of the Bundestag. The snap election produced Germany’s first hung parliament since 1961:
| Party/Coalition | Vote Share | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| CDU/CSU | 35.2% | 226 |
| SPD | 34.2% | 222 |
| FDP | 9.8% | 61 |
| Left Party (PDS/WASG) | 8.7% | 54 |
| Greens | 8.1% | 51 |
Neither the CDU/CSU + FDP bloc (287 seats) nor the SPD + Greens + Left Party coalition (327 seats, but SPD and Greens refused to govern with the Left Party at federal level) could form a majority. The SPD–CDU/CSU grand coalition, commanding 448 of 614 seats, became the only viable path to a stable government.
Formation of Government
Coalition negotiations lasted from September 18 to October 18, 2005. The SPD secured several key cabinet posts in exchange for supporting Merkel’s chancellorship, including the Foreign Ministry (Frank-Walter Steinmeier), the Finance Ministry (Peer Steinbrück), and the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry (Franz Müntefering as Vice-Chancellor). The CDU/CSU took the Chancellery, the Interior Ministry, and Defence among others.
Gerhard Schröder initially contested that he, as leader of the second-largest bloc, should lead the coalition — a position that was quickly abandoned as CDU/CSU’s lead in seats, however narrow, was recognized as decisive. Schröder did not join the cabinet and retired from federal politics.
Significance
Merkel’s election represented a historic milestone for Germany and for women in global leadership. As the first female Chancellor of Germany and the first woman to lead either major German political party (CDU) before assuming the chancellorship, her rise shattered significant gender barriers in European politics. Her background as a physical chemist who worked as a researcher in East Germany until 1989 and her rapid political ascent after the fall of the Berlin Wall — she entered politics only in 1990 — demonstrated pathways into leadership beyond traditional political backgrounds.
Equally significant was her identity as the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the German Democratic Republic. Born in Hamburg but raised in Brandenburg, she spent her formative years inside the communist state, an experience that shaped her political pragmatism and her cautious, evidence-driven approach to governance. Her election symbolized the full integration of East Germans into positions of national leadership in the post-1990 period.
The election’s constitutional dynamics were also notable: it produced Germany’s first hung parliament since 1961, requiring the two historically adversarial parties to negotiate a formal power-sharing coalition. This demonstrated the evolving fragmentation of the German electoral landscape — the growing vote share of smaller parties (FDP, Greens, Left Party) eroding the combined CDU+SPD “Volkspartei” dominance that had characterized the Federal Republic since the 1960s.
Early Chancellorship
In her first year, Merkel prioritized rebuilding Germany’s relationships within the European Union and with the United States, which had been strained during the Iraq War (Germany, alongside France, had refused to support the invasion). She also began the process of deregulating elements of Germany’s labor market, continuing Schröder’s “Agenda 2010” reforms that had been politically contentious.
Merkel’s chancellorship ultimately spanned 16 years (2005–2021), establishing her as one of Europe’s most consequential and longest-serving leaders. She navigated the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2010–2012 eurozone debt crisis, the 2015 refugee crisis (admitting over one million asylum seekers), and the COVID-19 pandemic. She stepped down in December 2021 after choosing not to seek a fifth term.