1950s Educated at a Jesuit boarding school

1962 Enters university to study physics

1966 Joins the Social Democratic Party (SPD) just as it abandons Marxism. Had not been politically active in college.

1970 Lafontaine wins a seat on Saarland’s state legislature

1974 Elected deputy mayor of Saarbrocken, capital of Saarland.

Becomes mayor in 1976–at the time the youngest chief executive of a large West German city. Continues to advance within the SPD.

1982 Lafontaine and other SPD members protest West Germany’s support of NATO plans to deploy U.S. nuclear weapons in Western Europe. He calls for West Germany to withdraw from NATO.

1983 With radicals like Lafontaine highly visible, the SPD suffers a devastating defeat at the hands of Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union in the general election

1985 Wins post of governor of Saarland. Never at ease with free markets, he tries to revive the ailing state by traditional socialist means like subsidies to coal and steel, running up massive deficits.

1987 Named first deputy chairman of the SPD. Shocks party members with plan to reduce unemployment: a call for fewer work hours and a wage cut.

1989 After the fall of the Berlin wall, Lafontaine advocates caution in offering jobs and housing to East German migrants

1990 Lafontaine campaigns for the chancellorship against incumbent Helmut Kohl. On April 25 a woman stabs Lafontaine in the neck at a rally, seriously wounding him. He recovers and returns to the spotlight, opposing economic reunification of Germany, a position that ultimately proves unpopular–and costs the SPD the highest national office.

1992 Der Spiegel reveals that Lafontaine had wrongly received a pension for his years as mayor. He swiftly pays back what is owed.

1995 After several years on the sidelines, Lafontaine again regains control of the faltering SPD and is elected party chairman

1998 Instrumental in electing Gerhard Schroder in first SPD victory in 16 years. Also publishes a book with third wife, Christa Moller, an economist, entitled ‘Don’t Be Afraid of Globalization,’ outlining the twin evils of low wages and low taxes, and the political agenda he attempts to implement.

Oct. 17, 1998 Appointed Finance minister

March 11, 1999 Abruptly resigns