The 1998 SPD Campaign in Germany

David Neumann

Introduction

The 1998 federal elections in Germany brought the Social Democratic Party (SPD) back into the government after being in the opposition for 16 years. On their way, the party as well as their candidate, Gerhard Schröder, revolutionized political campaigning in Germany by adopting strategies from the United States and the United Kingdom. Like Bill Clinton in the United States and Tony Blair in the U.K., Gerhard Schröder aimed at the centrist voters in the country, by offering a policy of "the New Center", which corresponds to America’s "New Democrats" and the British "New Labour". On September 27, 1998, he overwhelmingly defeated Chancellor Helmut Kohl with his appeal to centrist voters using a new campaign style that defied the notorious cautiousness and conservatism of German voters.

In this term paper I will highlight the most important events in the SPD campaign, the program of candidate Gerhard Schröder and how it relates to the voters in Germany. I will concentrate on the new campaign technique, which the SPD copied from American campaign managers. But it is also necessary to focus on Schröder’s program for a "new center" and to see who actually voted for him. I will try to find other explanations that seem to have been of importance for his victory, apart from the new campaign style and its influence on the public.