As she left the chancellery in Berlin, ending a 31-year political career, Mrs Merkel told her successor to approach the task "with joy."
Olaf Scholz has been sworn in as Germany's new Chancellor, formally taking power after Angela Merkel's historic 16 years as leader.
As she left the chancellery in Berlin, ending a 31-year political career, Mrs Merkel told her successor to approach the task "with joy."
According to BBC, his centre-left Social Democrats will govern alongside the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats.
Here are 10 things to know about Scholz who has taken the baton to rule Germany:
Olaf Scholz was born in the western German city of Osnabrück on 14th June, 1958 but has for several years now lived in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, together with his wife, Britta Ernst, who is education minister in the state of Brandenburg.
He had served Germany as a former finance minister and Vice Chancellor to Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021.
On 10th August 2020, the SPD party executive agreed to nominate Scholz to be the party’s candidate for Chancellor of Germany at the 2021 federal election.
He is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who was elected chancellor by the Bundestag on December 8, 2021, with 395 votes in favour and 303 against. His new government was appointed on the same day by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Scholz became a candidate for Chancellor of Germany in August 2020 and he is the oldest person to be Chancellor at 63 years after Ludwig Erhard who was 66 years old when he assumed office on 17th October, 1963.
He was the first Mayor of Marburg from 2011 to 2018 and deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019.
He is a lawyer by profession specialising in labour and employment law.
He served under Merkel’s government as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009.
On May 30, 2021, Scholz succeeded the resigned Senator for Interior of Hamburg, Harmuth Wrocklage, in the Senate of Hamburg led by Mayor Ortwin Runde.
In 2015, Scholz led Hamburg’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics with an estimated budget of 11.2 billion euros ($12.6 billion), competing with Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, and Budapest; but the citizens of Hamburg later rejected the city’s candidacy in a referendum.