BERLIN, Sept.18 (Xinhuanet) -- Germany's general elections began on Sunday. Following is a profile of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who is a chancellor candidate of the Socialist Democratic Party.

    Schroeder was born in the Lower Saxony town of Mossenberg in 1944. His father died during World War II in Romania, without ever having seen his son.

    Schroeder joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1963, and studied law at the University of Goettingen between 1966 and 1971.

    From 1986 to 1990, he served as chairman of the SPD group in the Landtag (regional parliament) of Lower Saxony.

    In the mid-1990s, Schroeder became more involved in federal politics. He was a member of Rudolf Scharping's shadow cabinet, responsible for economic, traffic and energy policies.

    Scharping, Schroeder and Oskar Lafontaine became the leading "troika" of the SPD, and opinion polls in 1997 showed Schroeder having a better chance than Lafontaine, of defeating incumbent Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

    In federal parliamentary elections on Sept. 27, 1998, Schroeder was elected as chancellor of Germany, unseating Kohl after the latter had served four four-year terms.

    Schroeder claimed to be a pro-business leader with fresh new ideas, and he also promised more jobs.

    He is also the first German chancellor whose life was not dominated by World War II, and a key development under his chancellorship has been Germany's new readiness to punch at its true weight on the world stage.

    German troops have joined peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Macedonia, and combat operations in Afghanistan.

    Schroeder is married to Doris Schroeder-Kopf, his fourth wife. He lives together with her, her daughter Klara from a previous relationship and a Russian girl called Viktoria, adopted in 2004. Enditem