Olaf Scholz (German pronunciation: ; born ()14 June 1958) is a German politician serving as Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor under Chancellor Angela Merkel from the CDU since 14 March 2018. He served as First Mayor of Hamburg from 7 March 2011 to 13 March 2018 and Acting Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 13 February to 22 April 2018.
A member of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2002 to 2011, Scholz was Minister of the Interior of Hamburg under First Mayor Ortwin Runde from May to October 2001 and general secretary of his party under chairman and chancellor Gerhard Schröder from 2002 to 2004. He served as Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in Merkel's first Grand Coalition from 2007 to 2009 and leader of the SPD in Hamburg from 2000 to 2004 and again from 2009 to 2018.
In a team with the former state representative Klara Geywitz, he received most votes in the first round of the 2019 SPD leader election, but lost in the ensuing run-off to the winners Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken.