 Born in the northwestern city of Osnabrück, Scholz grew up in Hamburg's Rahlstedt district and studied at the University of Hamburg to become a lawyer specializing in labour law.A former vice president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, Scholz represented Hamburg Altona in the Bundestag between 1998 and 2001 as well as between 2002 and 2011.From May to October 2001, he was Minister of the Interior "(Innensenator)" of Hamburg under First Mayor Ortwin Runde and from 2002 to 2004 he was Secretary-General of the SPD; he resigned from that office when Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, facing disaffection within his own party and hampered by persistently low public approval ratings, announced that he would step down as chairman of the Social Democratic Party.