Who Has the Longer Pipeline?: The Eternal Rivalry of Joschka Fischer and Gerhard Schröder

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The problem was that Fischer never saw himself in the role of the waiter. "The conversation left me with a lasting negative impression," he wrote in his memoirs. However, he never challenged the chancellor directly. There were other ways to demonstrate his superiority.

Schröder never paid much attention to the intellectual foundation of his policies. He was a man of instinct, a man of the moment -- someone who could deal with crises and make quick decisions.

Fischer, in contrast, was more interested in the big picture -- but sometimes his picture was so big that he could no longer keep it all in view. Fischer looked at Germany and the world and tried to understand how everything fitted together. Whenever he would hold forth in the cabinet about how it was important to look at the geopolitical implications of things, Schröder would roll his eyes.

It was an allocation of roles that both men could accept, until the war against Iraq began taking shape. Although Fischer was opposed to the war himself, he didn't like how vocally Schröder was broadcasting his opposition.

Fischer was also opposed to the snap election Schröder called in 2005 after the Social Democrats got trounced by the conservatives in a state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, traditionally an SPD stronghold. But Schröder didn't listen. The chef decided to close the kitchen -- ending the career of his waiter at the same time.

Enigmatic Answers

Fischer is sitting in a rectangular Bauhaus armchair, which his body fills almost exactly.

After leaving office, he had hoped for an international post, perhaps something with the United Nations. The European Union was looking for a foreign minister last year, and Fischer would have been a good candidate. But the political situation was not conducive.

Last August, Fischer rented an office on Berlin's prestigious Gendarmenmarkt square. The walls still look freshly painted and somewhat bare. The letters on the sign at the door -- JF&C, for Joschka Fischer & Company -- sound like the initials of an American law firm, or a lobbying firm.

But Fischer doesn't see himself as a lobbyist. But what is he then? It isn't easy to get a straight answer from him. Are you negotiating on behalf of RWE? No, says Fischer, he isn't negotiating. "But I do conduct talks." Fischer conducts talks, but he isn't negotiating. Everything about Fischer is a little enigmatic.

One thing is clear, says Fischer, and that is that he is not competing against Schröder. Nabucco, he says, is not directed against the Russians. It's an opinion that few people share. The Russians are opposed to Nabucco, and Schröder doesn't have a high opinion of it, either.

In His Element

All protestations aside, Fischer is Schröder's competitor. He is back in his element as an international politician, dealing with important matters like connecting Central Asia to Europe and improving relations with Turkey. Schröder, on the other hand, is mainly interested in preserving Russia's gas monopoly.

Both men are now lobbyists, and perhaps the winner of this new round of their long-standing battle will emerge within the next year. The construction of the Nabucco pipeline is scheduled to begin in 2011. There are no gas delivery contracts yet, and it still isn't clear what Turkey's price will be for allowing the pipeline to pass through its territory.

In other words, it is still possible that Schröder's prognosis is correct and Nabucco will never operate at a profit. On the other hand, it could well be that all of the geopolitical factors Fischer describes will fall into place. But no matter what happens, the loser will not accept defeat. The battle of Schröder vs. Fischer will continue.

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• Part 1: The Eternal Rivalry of Joschka Fischer and Gerhard Schröder
• Part 2: The Correct Historical Light
• Part 3: Instinct Vs. Geopolitical Vision