Ex-Chancellor Schroeder’s wife has lost her job after a party at the Russian Embassy

He is now one of the most hated German ministers in recent history. He has unabashedly projected himself as one of Putin’s closest German friends, resisting (unsuccessfully) plans to seize his office, chauffeur, and secretary in the Bundestag, and occasionally appear in Moscow.

His wife, a native South Korean translator and entrepreneur Soyeon Schroeder-Kim, has continued to use Instagramm without worry the whole time. Photos of a delicious dinner, ex-counselor smiling broadly with a Christmas tree, of Mrs. Schroeder Kim herself at a prayer service in Hotel window overlooking Red Square in Moscow. The Schroeders and Kims say they want nothing more than a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and believe it is best to maintain relations with Russia for this purpose.

Last Tuesday, the Schroeder-Kim couple went a step further when they were spotted at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, along with Russia-friendly Berlin. The reception was on the occasion of Russia’s “Victory Day”, on May 9th. Russia then commemorates the millions of Soviet soldiers who lost their lives in World War II and in the Nazi invasion of Berlin. It is also the day when modern Russia shows the world its weapons and war capabilities in military parades across Red Square. In addition to Schröder Kems, there were politicians from Die Linke and the far-right Alternative Party, as well as former GDR General Secretary Egon Krenz.

A photo of the couple appeared under a chandelier in the parlor room, and shortly after North Rhine-Westphalia Soyeon Schroeder hung Kim. This should lead to immediate dismissal, a state spokesperson reported in German media.

Schroeder Kim’s livelihood has remained out of the picture almost the entire time. For the Foreign Trade and Investment Association of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German state with a population of 17 million, its job was to bring in investors from South Korea. She was already warned after she brought her husband, a controversial former consultant, to Seoul without her employer’s permission. At the end of 2022, her employer reportedly also tried to get rid of her, but this was stopped by the then North Rhine-Westphalian state minister of economics.

The couple’s love of Russia seems to be unraveling now, a year into the war. Die Welt reported in 2021 that Schröder-Kemm’s work in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had earned her €152,000 in the previous year. In the middle of last year, after months of lobbying, Gerhard Schroeder also resigned as chairman of the supervisory board at Russian oil giant Rosneft, which used to earn him €550,000 a year. He lost his position at Gazprom and his office in the Bundestag.