Gerhard Schroeder's party fell from first place to second in the elections. His coalition partners fell from third place to fifth. It has finally dawned on him that this means he lost.
According to news reports he is going to step down and agree that the election's winner, Angela Merkel should be Chancellor. The new cabinet is likely to have an equal number of CDU/CSU and SPD members, with the small CDU/CSU lead in the election reflected in their taking the Chancellry. Some SPD members think Schroeder should stay on as foreign minister, but I suspect his ego is far too big for that. He will retire to the lecture circuit.
We can only hope that Franz Munterfering, author of Nazi-style campaignthat the SPD ran in Nordrhein-Westphalia and current SPD chairman will not be part of the new administration.