“When somebody concentrates all power into their hands, then of course that person will be held responsible for their mistakes,” said one SPD politician, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters. In the past, Klingbeil could always blame the party’s failures on others — including Olaf Scholz’s unpopularity — said the parliamentarian. But now, the parliamentarian added, Klingbeil is “the one who has to deliver.”
‘On the edge of the cliff’
The son of a soldier and a retail clerk, Klingbeil grew up in the military town of Munster in northern Germany — home to one of the German army’s largest bases. Disapproving of the military’s hierarchical nature, he was one of the few men in his high school class to forgo military service.
Rather, Klingbeil played guitar in rock bands growing up, including one called Pflaumenmus, or “Plum Jam,” and once joked that he wanted to be a punk rock star, but “somehow no one else wanted that.” The finance minister still keeps his guitars on hand in his home and office, and playing them, he once said, “is for me like meditation.”
Klingbeil, by his own account, was the first person in his family to attend university, studying political science in Hannover. For a stint, he interned at an SPD-affiliated foundation in Manhattan, where he witnessed the 9/11 attacks, an experience, he has said, that sparked a long-term interest in security policy.
Klingbeil entered the German parliament for the first time as a 27-year-old with an eyebrow ring. He was able to work his way up through the party ranks, ultimately shedding the piercing, due to a unique combination of personal attributes: the ability to be friendly, charming and persuasive, while also acting as a ruthless power broker when needed, according to SPD members speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity.
“Overall, he’s a very friendly, sociable guy,” said Ralf Stegner, a senior SPD parliamentarian who has known Klingbeil for over two decades. “People who are like that are easily underestimated, because that’s not the usual style in politics.”
