Gerhard Schröder

Now I tend to avoid anything political as I never want to get involved in a topic that every German seems to be an expert on, and lets face it, none of them are happy about things and submissive to being unable to change things, so why get involved in a topic that is misery now, doom and gloom later?

But what I don’t understand is, how can Schröder resign as Chairman of his political party and yet stay as Chancellor?

Can anybody explain why he has resigned? And what effect it has or will cause?

Even in UK the chairman of the party is not the Prime Minister.

The leader of the party that wins the most seats is usually the Prime Minister but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

Schröder's resigned because he wants to concentrate on pushing through his reforms. Or put another way: it's his final throw of the dice to save his skin. His political future is extremely insecure and if things don't improve pretty sharpish, the red-green coaltion is going to disintegrate and he'll be forced to step down before the next elections in 2006.

ahhhh there’s me thinking that leader and chairman were the same as in managerial terms.

Nobody uses the word leader in German politics because it's still taboo to talk about 'der Führer'. I think that may be why there are other words which describe a role but leave you wondering if it's the same as really being in charge.

So what is the leader of a German political party called in the German language ?

Arschloch perhaps

They are called "Parteivorsitzender"
Sie sitzen einer Partei vor - the party chairman

The party secretary is the Generalsekratär
The leader of the party members in the Bundestag is the Fraktionsvorsitzender.

OR as Dusty quite rightly said they are all ARSEHOLES