After the SPD’s defeat in the federal election of 2017, deputy party leader Olaf Scholz demanded a schonungslose Betrachtung der Lage, an unsparing look at the situation. There should be no more excuses in the search for causes, he said. The party leadership under Martin Schulz commissioned an outside working group to analyze the campaign. Its report appeared in June 2018 under the title Aus Fehlern lernen, learning from mistakes. “Die SPD ist in der Krise. In der womöglich tiefsten seit 1949.” The SPD is in crisis, possibly the deepest since 1949. The report says that crisis communication was not among the strengths of the Schulz team.