The leader of Germany's opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD), Sigmar Gabriel, has revealed his father was a life-long Nazi who kept him a virtual prisoner as a child.
Gabriel, 53, spoke of the "almost unbridled rage" he still feels about the memory of living with his divorced and domineering father, although he only learnt of his far-right convictions when he was 18.
The SPD chief told the Zeit weekly newspaper that his father Walter had emotionally abused him as a child, then, shortly before his death in June last year, accused his son of having abandoned him.
Gabriel said he no longer feels anger against the father, with whom he had lost contact for decades, but that he felt guilt for his mother, from whom his father isolated him between ages three and 10.
Gabriel finally moved back in with his mother at age 10 but remained a juvenile delinquent for years before becoming more settled. "She saved my life," Gabriel told the newspaper.