The move into the Lower Saxony State Chancellery in the summer of 1990 marked the actual beginning of Schröder's network. As prime minister, Schroeder has more opportunities than before to fill posts and accelerate careers. In the environment of the SPD politician, many names now appear, which later move with Schroeder to Berlin and become important for Germany's Russia policy. Brigitte Zypries takes over the Department of Constitutional Law in Schröder's State Chancellery. With Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Zypries also guides a fellow student from her time as a student in Giessen to Lower Saxony. In the 1980s, Zypries and Steinmeier had worked for the legal journal "Demokratie und Recht", which was monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The publication was published by Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, which was largely financed by the GDR. In 1990, Steinmeier, like Schroeder, was one of the opponents of the rapid unification process. "You fit in with us," Schroeder is reported to have said to Steinmeier during the interview.
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Reinhard Bingener
Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen, based in Hanover.
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Markus Wehner
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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There is another confidant of Schröder, who moved from Hanover to Berlin in 1998. In contrast to the politicians mentioned, his name does not appear in the relevant Schroeder biographies: Heino Wiese. The Social Democrat, born in 1952, met Schröder in 1982 at the famous currywurst in the restaurant "Plümecke". From 1990 to 2003, Wiese held influential positions in Lower Saxony's Social Democracy. He is managing director of the SPD district of Hanover and regional manager of the SPD in Lower Saxony. Wiese thus largely controls the party headquarters in Odeonstrasse and manages Schroeder's election campaigns. He is building up a uniquely dense network within the SPD in Lower Saxony. According to Wiese, the focus is on "Team Gerhard Schröder" with Steinmeier and Zypries, which could be imagined as an old football team. The arc of long-time Wiese confidants also includes Sigmar Gabriel, today's Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Stephan Weil and today's SPD Federal Chairman Lars Klingbeil.
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What is striking in Schroeder's network is the high number of interrelationships that are financially underpinned. Within this network, one could describe such diverse chains. Heino Wiese arranges the entry of oligarch Alexej Mordashov into TUI, led by Social Democratic manager Michael Frenzel, which in turn sponsors the arena of building contractor Günter Papenburg; Papenburg holds shares in the steel company Salzgitter AG, which Schroeder once bought as prime minister with state funds from Frenzel's TUI predecessor Preussag and which later supplies tubes for the company Nord Stream 2, supervised by Schröder, as well as other pipeline projects of the Kremlin, whose honorary consul in Hanover is Heino Wiese. And all these persons meet temporarily in the joint "G6" lodge at Hannover 96. If one looks at the structural features of the Schröder network, the extensive absence of women is striking. Schroeder's entourage bears men's alliance traits. It consists mainly of successful and wealthy gentlemen, who usually have a pronounced self-confidence. Feelings of shame are less pronounced. Pusher columns and contacts with criminal rockers are just as little an obstacle to entry as pronounced contacts to Iran, China or Russia. People drink together. They help each other.