Veteran German politician Wolfgang Schäuble, who served as a member of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, for more than half a century, has died at the age of 81, German media reported today.

Schäuble, who spent much of his career dedicated to reunifying his country and later served as former chancellor Angela Merkel’s finance minister during the eurozone debt crisis, died peacefully late Tuesday night, the German news agency reported. .

Schäuble was from 1965 a member of the center-right Christian Democrats and became an MP in 1972. He was one of the longest-serving German politicians.

He has been confined to a wheelchair since 1990 after the bullets of an unbalanced gunman crippled and almost killed him.

Wolfgang Schäuble, who hailed from Freiburg, was considered one of the most prominent politicians of Germany’s Christian Democratic Party, CDU. He shaped federal policy for decades and was the longest-serving member of the Bundestag.

In particular, the former German finance minister has held government positions since the 1980s, including Federal Minister for Special Duties, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Minister of the Interior under Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Under Angela Merkel, Schäuble was again interior minister from 2005 to 2009 and finance minister from 2009 to 2017, a post for which he became known beyond Germany during the euro crisis.

Between 1991 and 2000, he held the position of chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag for the Union.

After the collapse of the Christian Democratic Union in the 1998 federal election, Schäuble succeeded Helmut Kohl as the party’s chairman. Just 15 months later, he resigned from the position and leadership of the Christian Democratic Union caucus in 2000 following the party’s funding scandal. Schäuble’s resignation started a change within the Christian Democrats, with Angela Merkel taking over as party leader.