His mother, Erika, remarried, but her second husband suffered from tuberculosis. In order to support her family of five children, she cleaned barracks for British occupation forces in the town of Lemgo, in northern Germany. Schroder began toiling in the fields at the age of 12 to bring in money. He quit school at 14 to take sales jobs in a china shop and then a hardware store. Schroder was an eager student, who paid for night courses in order to finish high school. Imre Karacs in the
Independent reported that Schroder often told his mother, "One day I'll take you away from all this in a Mercedes." He went on to Gottingen University, where he studied law and joined the Young Socialists, a youth branch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Schroder became the group's leader in the district of Hannover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, in 1977. The following year he became the national chairman of the SPD Young Socialists. Meanwhile, Schroder pursued post-graduate work and obtained a law degree in 1976; he was a practicing attorney from 1976 to 1980.
Schroder combined his profession and his politics, becoming noted for defending Red Army Faction terrorist Horst Mahler in a parole hearing, and also for his association with Willy Brandt, the former SPD chancellor.
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