A member of the postwar generation of German political leaders, Rudolf Scharping (born 1947) was minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate and chairman of the German Social Democratic Party and its chancellor candidate for 1994.

Born on December 2, 1947, Rudolf Scharping grew up in the small city of Lahnstein in Rhineland-Palatinate. He was the eldest of seven children whose father, an independent furniture dealer, ran into difficult economic times after World War II. When the father found a position in the state's statistical office, the family's situation improved.

After finishing secondary education in 1966, Scharping studied political science, law, and sociology at the University of Bonn. He financed part of his studies through work, including an assistantship to a German Social Democratic Party (SPD) deputy, Wilhelm Dröscher, the party's treasurer, who became his mentor. He received an advanced degree in 1974 after completing a thesis on a regional election campaign waged by the SPD...