Cause Schroeder
What the ex-chancellor and all ex-chancellors are entitled to
Angela Merkel (pictured with husband Joachim Sauer) receives a monthly pension of 15,000 euros. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
How much money former chancellors get varies. And it depends on which tasks and offices are in the respective CV. Angela Merkel’s retirement benefits are impressive.
Pension claims after a chancellorship are regulated by law. They can be made up of various tasks during a political career: from the length of time you have been a member of the Bundestag, from working as a federal or state minister, as Prime Minister and as chancellor. However, the various claims are partly offset against each other.
The Members of Parliament Act applies to membership of the Bundestag, according to which members of parliament can be entitled to up to 65 percent of the members’ remuneration, depending on the length of time. Claims arising from membership of the Federal Government are regulated by the Federal Ministers Act. The amount of this pension depends on the length of service. According to the Taxpayers’ Association, a government member’s pension can be as high as around 12,000 euros.
All former chancellors and former federal presidents are actually entitled to an office. Office management, speaker positions, typists and drivers are financed. The offices were previously made available for life and could exist for decades.
Angela Merkel (CDU, term of office: 2005 to 2021), for example, receives a monthly pension of around 15,000 euros according to a calculation by the taxpayers’ association. When the former chancellor moved into her new office a few months ago, she was given nine employees with salaries of up to 10,000 euros.
For the office of predecessor Gerhard Schröder (1998 to 2005), personnel expenses of around 407,000 euros flowed from the state treasury last year; according to the federal government, it has been more than three million euros since 2016.
The budget committee of the Bundestag decided in 2019 that former chancellors should only have five employees. However, this only applies to the time after the incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). In the spring, the traffic light coalition generally reorganized the alimony of former federal chancellors and federal presidents and made it dependent on whether the former top politicians actually still take on tasks related to their former office, i.e. have patronage and give speeches.
Law on Members of Parliament Federal Ministers Law Federal Court of Auditors on pensions for former chancellors Government response on the costs of Schröder’s office The Taxpayers’ Association on financing the federal government