"A 20-year chapter of my life has come to an end, a new one is beginning." So spoke German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer Tuesday as he bid farewell to the day-to-day haggles of political life. During a party meeting, Fischer -- Germany's only politician with pop-star appeal -- told his Green Party colleagues that did not want a party post in the post-election reshuffle. Or rather, he did not want a post unless it was the one he currently holds. And that appears impossible given the breakdown of Sunday's vote, in which the Greens did better than predicted, but still came out with the lowest percentage of votes of any of the five major political parties. So, instead of returning to the trenches in opposition, Fischer now wants to take a back seat. In his words, he wants to "regain my freedom."

Of course, no one really believes that a political dynamo and egomaniac like Fischer will just fade into the political woodwork. Likely, he will find new life for the next couple of years writing a memoir or as some sort of foreign affairs expert. Then, perhaps, he will make a return. But for the moment he says he wants a "break." Naturally, his move was also spurred by election results which have failed to give him and his boss Chancellor Gerhard Schröder the mandate they need to continue a third term as a "Red-Green" coalition. The Greens have outperformed the low expectations placed on them, but Fischer, like a good actor, has noticed his exit cue.

Just who will rule Germany in coming months remains up in the air and several papers spill ink trying to devise complicated permutations of power between Schröder, his Christian Democratic challenger Angela Merkel, the business-friendly Free Democrats, and the Greens. Merkel's CDU party got close to one percent more of the votes than Schröder's SPD, which should entitle her to rule if, indeed, the two major parties form a grand coalition. But Schröder remains the more popular choice, and insists he wants to serve.

Given such high-level stalemate, it's understandable that many commentators just want to talk about Joschka -- who started in politics as a rock-throwing street protester and became Germany's best-loved politician. Along the way, the former pacifist became a seasoned world leader who recently lamented that Western troops had taken so long to intervene militarily in the former Yugoslavia. His vision and personality also transformed the Green Party from a group of sunflower-toting dreamers into a legitimate political force. Fischer's Greens are not only the strongest in Europe, but in the world. For the moment, though, no one wants to eulogize the unpredictable Fischer, who clearly has more politicking -- albeit on a different level -- ahead. The papers are more interested in the ramifications of his sudden withdrawal.

"Joschka Fischer is always good for a surprise," writes the financial daily Handelsblatt. Fischer's move is stunning, not only politically, but also personally, the paper says. After all, Fischer is a well-known political animal who lives and breathes for his job. Yet, just two days after the election, he took the quickest and most radical step a politician can take. "As such, the regular taboo-breaker of German politics has shown himself to be a model of democracy ... For the last time, it seems, he is showing himself one step ahead of his long-time partner and rival Gerhard Schröder."

For weeks, Germany's most popular newspaper, the tabloid Bild, has run a virtual campaign for Merkel. Wednesday's appeal is no different. "Why this step now?" the paper asks of Fischer's sudden withdrawal. "Fischer has not the slightest illusion that Red-Green is finally history. Red-Green was the political project that for over a decade the former street fighter and squatter fought with heart and mind to achieve. Red-Green was his political world. He can't imagine another. Fischer's departure also destroys Schröder's illusionary piece of theatre that there is a majority in favor of him as chancellor." Merkel, says the paper, is the best choice, and she will not "let herself be tossed aside easily."

The conservative Die Welt, too, almost gleefully compares Fischer's graceful exit with Schröder's end-game struggle to stay in power. "No one fought with so much vehemence for Red-Green than Fischer," the paper says. "But now he accepts the end of his political project and is calling it what it is: a caesura." The contrast to Schröder couldn't be greater. Ever since Red-Green was voted out, Schröder's attitude has been one of "did I miss something?" That may be winning him honor among his party, but much of what comes out of this "political survival magician's" mouth "now sounds hollow," the paper says.

Germany's paper of record, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung views Fischer's choice to duck out as a question of energy and ego. "It's understandable that someone who has shaken hands with the world's most powerful doesn't want to start from scratch again. But is this really a retreat from politics? Relinquishing a party position is not the same as relinquishing a governing position. Rather, it is a clear indication of gloomy times."

For SPIEGEL Online pundit Claus Christain Malzahn, Fischer's withdrawal from Green Party politics marks the "end of an era" in Germany. He hails Fischer as someone who had incredible influence on the revolutionary "1968" generation and even goes so far as to dub him the "Moses from Frankfurt" who led his Green Party to the promised land of political recognition. Given the powerful post he has held, Malzahn asks why Fischer would want to start over as a leader within a minority opposition party. "Whoever takes over on the front lines of the Green Party cannot replace Fischer," Malzahn says. But perhaps replacing him isn't necessary. "Without Fischer around, his successor would have room to explore new avenues that Fischer no longer could or wants to pursue." The question for the Greens will be if they want to continue to "modernize" or to "regress," Malzahn says.

Malzahn outlines Fischer's rags-to-riches political ascent, lauding him as a "trans-Atlantacist" who often did not do enough to curb his equally ego-centric boss. Although his time as "quasi party chief and foreign minister will soon be over, it is too soon to bid farewell to Fischer...The political options that exist in Berlin today offer a great opportunity for just such a gray-green eminence. After all, Fischer will soon become the first elder statesman the Greens have. Maybe he'll spend the next few years waving to us from Brussels. Or maybe from New York. Or perhaps even from Bellevue (home of the German president). The only place we can really dismiss as a possible Fischer landing pad is the Vatican."