Last Sunday, German foreign minister and chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially kicked off what some political analysts are calling the greatest adventure in German electoral history.

In a speech given to 2,500 cheering supporters in Berlin, Steinmeier announced his campaign manifesto. By promising to shift Germany’s tax burden more to the rich and by attacking the policies of incumbent Christian Democrat Chancellor Angela Merkel, Steinmeier’s Social Democratic Party (spd) hopes to score big with voters during the federal elections this coming September. The return to active politics last year of Steinmeier’s spd cohort Hans Muntefering, whom Steinmeier had earlier replaced as vice chancellor, was an early signal that these two were intent on pulling the leadership rug out from under Chancellor Merkel.

Not since Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 have two chancellor candidates entered a campaign under such grim global economic circumstances. Playing on this theme at the party conference on Sunday, Steinmeier declared: “Something is smoldering in our country. Anger and indignation are rife. The people’s sense of justice has been violated.” But he treads a fine line with such a political statement. Germany’s first-quarter figures on capital investment showed investor confidence as being at a two-year high, no doubt reflecting successful bargain hunting by investors in the current depressed economic climate. Also, Germany’s Small Business Index has shown positive growth recently. Steinmeier may have to select an alternative theme if he is to pursue a successful campaign for the chancellorship.

Even though Chancellor Merkel’s conservative political party is currently ahead in the polls, the prospect of Merkel winning the upcoming election is fading. This is due to embedded divisions within her always-shaky coalition government. She has always been unpopular with power-hungry politicians in her own party.

Whatever the state of the German economy by the September elections, and whatever the state of the nation’s politics at that time, the results of the elections will likely result in a tectonic shift in the German political landscape.

“You need to watch the September 27 election this year in Germany,” wrote editor in chief Gerald Flurry in the May/June 2009 edition of the Trumpet. “It could very well produce the political leader of the Holy Roman Empire—and through devious means.”

In the November/December 2008 edition of the Trumpet, Mr. Flurry wrote:

Merkel is coming to a dead end: a network of German leaders who have different plans. This group of leaders is like the Nazi underground network that developed during and after World War ii, ready and waiting to come to the surface and establish its own vision for Germany’s future. And it is a deadly and terrible vision!Now, the upheaval in the grand coalition opens the door for someone else through flatteries and deceit to put together a coalition and become chancellor—next September, if not before.

This network of German leaders has representatives in both of Germany’s major political parties. Even now, Merkel does not really control German policy, because other leaders are grabbing at the reins.

An Underground Network of German Leaders

One of these leaders is Frank-Walter Steinmeier—a man who values Germany’s relationship with Moscow more than its relationship with the United States. Germany’s intelligence services are subordinate to him, and he has already experienced a couple of embarrassing revelations concerning covert German involvement in both Iraq and Kosovo.

Another important leader in this network is former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He currently works as a high-ranking officer at the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom. Like Steinmeier, Schröder wants to resurrect a greater Germany and believes that to do so, Germany must cooperate with Vladimir Putin’s Russian police state.

Edmund Stoiber is yet another important German politician known for despising Merkel and cooperating with Putin. Stoiber is a close friend of the pope. He is also the former protégé of Franz Josef Strauss—the late authoritarian strongman of Bavaria. Like Strauss before him, Stoiber wants to see Europe develop into a strong federation dominated by Catholicism.

Current Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer holds the second-most powerful position in Merkel’s own political alliance. Yet he also has been highly critical of the chancellor. He especially lambasted Merkel for her criticism of Pope Benedict’s handling of the scandal involving the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson in February. Seehofer is known for his political loyalty to his former boss Edmund Stoiber; the relationship between the two has even been compared to the relationship between Putin and Medvedev.

The German interior minister, Christian Democrat Wolfgang Schäuble, has also been noted for his not-always-smooth relationship with Merkel. Wheelchair-bound since an assassination attempt during a campaign appearance in 1990, Schäuble was one of the architects of German reunification. As interior minister he is in charge of one of the most powerful and effective security systems in the world. Recently, Schäuble stirred up controversy by inferring that Germany’s Constitution should be changed to allow for preventative detainments, clandestine seizure of private computer data and even targeted killings.

While Steinmeier and Schröder are Social Democrats, Stoiber and Seehofer are Christian Socialists; Schäuble is from Merkel’s own political party, the Christian Democratic Union. Having such a mixed bag of political rivals from both within and without her party surrounding her, it is highly doubtful that Merkel, let alone her coalition, can survive any political crisis as chancellor.

Daniel 8:23-24 tell of a fierce ruler who will come to the forefront in Europe in the latter times:

And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

Our editor in chief has written that this year’s election in Germany may be the catalyst that will bring this man to power. This leader will not be Merkel. Perhaps it may not even be Steinmeier. It may not even be a German chancellor. But one thing is for certain. This leader will eventually be the most powerfully influential leader of what is presently termed the European Union. Whatever the outcome, the September elections in Germany are destined to have dramatic effect on just who that future leader of the prophesied seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire will be.

For more information on the events currently unfolding in Germany, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire and Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany.