Why Germany's former chancellor has triggered fresh outrage

Parties of the far-left and far-right in Germany are criticizing the decision to afford former Chancellor Olaf Scholz his own office with a staff of eight — on top of his regular office as a member of the Bundestag.

Stephan Brandner, parliamentary whip for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), said he could understand former chancellors receiving a staff of three as well as a driver. "But what eight employees are supposed to do for an ex-chancellor who has not completed a full term of office remains completely unclear, and is nothing more than a waste of tax money," he told Die Welt newspaper.

Christian Görke of the socialist Left Party took a similar line, arguing that the entire idea of giving former chancellors offices to work from should be scrapped, "They don't need their own court for life," he said. "The offices must be dissolved."

Staff for an ex-chancellor

Former German chancellors and presidents are traditionally given their own offices for life after their terms end, on the grounds that they can never simply retire and become private citizens again and are considered to still have responsibilities to the state.

In Scholz's case, the Finance Ministry has said the former chancellor's work is likely to be especially vital because Russia's all-out war in Ukraine began during his tenure.

Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius told reporters that the Social Democrat's expertise would still be required, as the war in Ukraine was "still a really central foreign policy and security policy issue." He added that Scholz's successor and opponent in the last federal election, Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), considered Scholz's planned staffing appropriate.

Wulff and Schröder cases

Scholz's eight employees is one fewer than his predecessor Angela Merkel was afforded when she left office in 2021, but it is four more than the parliamentary budget committee recommended in a 2019 review. The committee proposed that former chancellors be allotted one office manager, two advisers, an office assistant or typist and a driver.

The tradition of giving former German leaders offices and staff has come under increased scrutiny following various controversies. In 2012, the Bundestag afforded the former President Christian Wulff an office with a staff of three, even though he was still under investigation by state prosecutors for allegedly accepting bribes. The scandal, among other things involving a film producer who allegedly paid for his holidays, prematurely ended Wulff's brief tenure as the German head of state, though he was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

More recently, in 2022, the Bundestag wound down the office of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, with a staff of five, after Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine. Though the Bundestag argued that the decision was made because Schröder no longer had any important tasks to fulfil, it was widely believed — and Schröder argued — that the decision was made because of the former chancellor's close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Schröder sued the Bundestag over the decision in state courts before a federal court decided that the administrative courts had no authority to rule on the case in the first place. Schröder, now 81, then decided to drop the case altogether.

New rules, new authority

But the Schröder case did have an effect, according to Klaus Herrmann, a specialist in administrative law at the legal firm Dombert in Potsdam. During the legal wrangling, the courts established that former chancellors and presidents (or indeed any government office holders) don't automatically have a legal claim to an office and staff on the state's costs. All they are entitled to is a pension.

Nevertheless, Herrmann thinks the costs of financing an office for former chancellors are justified, as former heads of state and government are vital resources for their successors, as well as journalists and historians.

"They have networks, they have telephone numbers," he told DW. "They can be asked for advice, and if they have an office, they are reachable. They don't sit around at home and look after their roses. They can be called upon to help with state business, in order to support the parliamentary government — with ideas, with contacts, and so on."