Chancellor on summer tour
Things get private in Potsdam: Olaf Scholz shows up in jeans at meetings with the public – and in a chatty mood
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits the aid station of the Berlin Wall Trail Run at the weekend
© DPA
In the chancellor city of Potsdam, appearances with foreign state guests in a private setting have so far been rare. From time to time, however, Olaf Scholz grants private insights when he is out and about in the constituency.
The former Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl enjoyed receiving state guests and serving Saumagen in his Palatinate home of Oggersheim. Sets too Olaf Scholz on a kind of living room diplomacy in his adopted home of Potsdam? Curious citizens were able to see the chancellor in June when he met French President Emmanuel Macron in front of his home on Potsdam’s Alter Markt and dined in a starred restaurant. It is true that such appearances are rather rare where the Hanseatic has lived for five years. However, the chancellor allows few insights into private life when he is out and about in his constituency, as is currently the case during the parliamentary summer break.
Whether the 65-year-old in Potsdam – surrounded by lakes and castles – sometimes finds a gap in his schedule and makes a detour to the ice cream parlor next to his apartment? In any case, the SPD politician has been spotted rowing on the nearby Havel in the past. A ZDF summer interview with the Chancellor was recorded on Sunday in a rowing club at the Olympic base.
Scholz as a private person? It was his wife Britta Ernst, former Minister of Education in Brandenburg, who recently revealed on Instagram that they were on vacation in Provence. On Scholz’s website one can read about Potsdam in a sober tone: “I live here with my wife, I go jogging and shop here.”
Olaf Scholz on a summer tour in Brandenburg
The Brandenburg state capital is making a name for itself nationally with the Barberini Museum by art patron Hasso Plattner and Sanssouci Palace. The city with its villa areas is sometimes referred to as a hotspot for Germany’s celebrities.
Since Scholz won the Bundestag constituency in Potsdam and the surrounding area against the later Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in 2021, he has been bustling about in the state capital and the neighboring region. He likes to visit a construction site for geothermal energy on the weekend or on the morning before government business in Berlin, rehearses the serve with the Bundesliga volleyball players at SC Potsdam or does scientific experiments with daycare children.
Even on his current summer tour through the country, the reserved North German is definitely in a chatty mood. “I even hiked the Rennsteig once,” he said in a public discussion in Thuringia. Months ago, he revealed to schoolchildren that he rowed but had not yet tried stand-up paddling.
The Scholz couple keeps fit
During the Wall Run on the former border strip at the weekend, the SPD member of the Bundestag Scholz in Teltow was casually out and about in jeans and was more relaxed than when he was in government. “Mr. Scholz, a Coke please,” a runner called out to him at the aid station. The Chancellor patted the athletes on the shoulder in admiration – some of them had covered 56 kilometers.
The head of government also regularly makes his rounds with his bodyguards in Potsdam or when travelling. “Depending on where I am, sometimes I’m on the road,” he said, smiling slightly. “I usually run 8 to 10 kilometers, two to three times a week.” His wife, who Scholz had urged years ago to lose weight and go jogging, is also seen walking in Babelsberg Park. As the Chancellor’s wife, however, she stays in the background and rarely accompanies her husband on his state visits.
Government policy is likely to be left out of the chancellor’s appearances this week. During his trip to the constituency, questions such as the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the controversial heating law and other controversial issues of the Berlin traffic light coalition were inconvenient for him. Scholz leads on Monday to Seddiner See, for example, which suffers from a lack of water. Then there are detours to the Babelsberg film studios and to a candy factory in Potsdam.