The Zeitenwende speech was an address delivered to the Bundestag by Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, on 27 February 2022. His speech was a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Scholz described the attack as a "historic turning point" and announced that in response his government would use a €100 billion fund to significantly increase military spending, reversing Germany's previously cautious defence policy.
Olaf Scholz, pictured about two months before delivering the Zeitenwende speech
Slide from a presentation at the 2022 SPD party conference entitled 'Putin's war – a historical turning point?'
Olaf Scholz is a German politician who has been the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor in the fourth Merkel cabinet and as Federal Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2021. He was also First Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018, deputy leader of the SPD from 2009 to 2019, and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2009.
Scholz in 2023
Scholz at the Young Socialists Congress, 1984
Scholz in March 2011, on the government benches in the Hamburg Parliament, shortly after his election as First Mayor
Scholz and the spouses of the heads of state and government at the G20 in Hamburg, 2017