People
Olaf Scholz and Britta Ernst celebrate their silver wedding anniversary
Olaf Scholz and Britta Ernst have been married to each other for 25 years. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
“Love for my wife is the most important thing in my life,” Chancellor Scholz once said. Today they both have every reason to celebrate.
In the middle of the tough house negotiations and immediately before a difficult SPD party conference, there is for Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a rather important private appointment on Thursday: The head of government was celebrating his silver wedding anniversary with his wife Britta Ernst in a “very private circle” that evening, as the German Press Agency learned from those close to the Chancellor. The two have now been married for exactly 25 years.
The couple benefits from the fact that there will be a break in the marathon negotiations on Thursday about the 17 billion hole in the 2024 federal budget because Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is flying to Brussels for an EU meeting in the early afternoon. On Friday, Scholz is expected at the SPD party conference, where he will give his speech on Saturday.
A different person
“Love for my wife is the most important thing in my life,” the Chancellor revealed to “Bild am Sonntag” in February with a view to the anniversary. And at an event hosted by the “Rheinische Post” in March, he said: “I think I would be a completely different person if I weren’t married to Britta Ernst.” When asked what kind of person he would be then, he replied: “Neither you nor I want to know.”
Like Scholz (65), 62-year-old Britta Ernst is an SPD politician and was education minister in Brandenburg until a few months ago. In mid-April she resigned due to a lack of support for her policies within her own ranks.
Since then, the two have appeared together in public more often. Ernst has now accompanied the Chancellor on two trips abroad. In May she attended the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and the subsequent trip to South Korea. In September she traveled with Scholz to the UN General Assembly in New York.