Throughout his 30 years in politics, Mr Oskar Lafontaine has been one of the most controversial figures in German public life. Adored by Social Democratic party activists as the keeper of Willy Brandt's true, socialist flame, he is loathed by business leaders, many parliamentary colleagues and most of the media. Known as "the Napoleon of the Saar", Mr Lafontaine's political base is in the tiny, southern state on the French border. Born into a poor family, he was educated by Jesuits and later studied physics.
He became the youngest mayor of a German city in 1979 when he took charge of the city of Saarbrucken. He became prime minister of the Saar six years later. The lowest point in Mr Lafontaine's career came in 1990, when he challenged Dr Helmut Kohl for the chancellorship. In the euphoric wake of German unification, Dr Kohl romped home and the SPD polled its lowest vote in history.
During the campaign, Mr Lafontaine was stabbed almost to death by a deranged woman, an experience that is said to have had a profound effect on him.
With his third wife, the economist Dr Christa Muller, Mr Lafontaine set about developing new economic policies for Germany and, in a sudden coup in 1995, he toppled the lacklustre Mr Rudolf Scharping as SPD chairman.
Even Mr Lafontaine's worst enemies admit that he has been a remarkably effective party leader, bringing discipline to the unruly Social Democratic ranks and ruthlessly using the party's majority in the upper house of parliament to block Dr Kohl's tax reform plans. But Mr Lafontaine could never compete with Mr Schroder in terms of popularity and he allowed his rival to become Chancellor in the hope that he could become the power behind the throne.
