Doris Schröder-Köpf has kept his name. And she doesn’t want to take it off either. So she will probably always be connected to former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, whose fourth wife she was. Now she not only chats about her private relationship with him, she also defends him against political criticism.
Doris Schröder-Köpf was Gerhard Schröder’s fourth wife. But with more than 20 years at his side, she had the longest relationship to date with the now 78-year-old former chancellor.
In a conversation with the magazine “Bunte”, the 59-year-old talks about her current relationship with her ex-husband. The Lower Saxony state politician of the SPD also makes cautious political statements about him. First and foremost, Doris Schröder-Köpf defends the former Federal Chancellor, referring to his merits and legacy.
Gerhard Schröder has done “a lot of good” for Germany in the past, explains the politician, who originally came from Upper Bavaria. This includes in particular his “No to the Iraq war”, which “avoided damage to Germany”. Doris Schröder-Köpf believes that her ex-husband is currently “viewed too one-sidedly”.
Privately, she would be in contact with Gerhard Schröder “because of the children,” she explains. Their relationship is “of course (…) not free of tension”. But she has no intention of discarding the Schröder name in the future. “I’ve had Schröder as my family name for a quarter of a century, and it will stay that way. It’s my name now. Period,” said Schröder-Köpf.
At the beginning of the year, she broke up with Lower Saxony’s Minister of the Interior, Boris Pistorius, with whom Schröder-Köpf was last in a relationship. When asked why, in the “Bunte” interview, she refers to a serious open-heart surgery that she had to undergo two years ago.
“Since the operation, I’ve had a slightly different view of my life. When you see your own finitude in this way, you may have a stronger need for clarity,” says Schröder-Köpf. Despite the separation, she remains “on friendly terms” with Pistorius.
At the age of 59, she has reached an age when she “doesn’t want to waste any more time,” Schröder-Köpf continues. Looking back, she states: “My life, whenever it ends, has been a lavish one. I am very grateful.”
The former journalist has been a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament since 2013. On October 9, she will stand again for the SPD.
Doris Schröder-Köpf was married to Gerhard Schröder from 1997 to 2018. However, the separation took place in 2016. Gerhard Schröder’s chancellorship from 1998 to 2005 also fell during this marriage. Doris Schröder-Köpf has a daughter from a previous relationship. In 2004 and 2006, she and the current former chancellor adopted two children from Russia.
