History of Germany since 1990 Helmut Kohl was reelected as Chancellor for his fifth and last term. The ruling liberal-conservative coalition government, consisting of the CDU/CSU and the FDP, lost the German federal election, 1998, and Gerhard Schröder was elected as Chancellor, the head of a coalition government consisting of his own SPD party and The Greens. Joschka Fischer, a leading Green politician, became Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Shortly after the formation of the government, Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, a former SPD chairman and rival of Schröder, resigned from the cabinet. He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Hans Eichel. In 1998,
Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany office of German Chancellors. The given numbers show the percentage of people agreeing with the statement that the named Chancellor was a good one: It was not asked for the first three German Chancellors (Adenauer, Erhard, Kiesinger). In December 2013, Forsa reasked 1002 Germans to name the most notable German Chancellor: In May 2015, YouGov asked 1111 Germans to name the best German Chancellor in their opinion: Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany are surveys conducted to construct rankings of the success and popularity of the individuals who have served as Chancellor of Germany