After his resignation as Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt continues as Chairman of the SPD. Brandt identifies the central tasks of his political mission as the consolidation of the party and the preservation of party unity through construction of a consensus.

The social-liberal coalition continues its work under Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Walter Scheel - Foreign Minister in the Brandt administration and a partner in the transformation of the East and German policies - is elected in May 1974 to the office of Federal President. Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) takes over his position as Foreign Minister.

The administration of Helmut Schmidt announces that it will continue with some restrictions the domestic reforms that have been initiated. The economic recession, caused by the oil crisis and which has left large gaps in the public budget, forces abandonment of reform plans in several areas. The financial resources of the social state reach their limits. Helmut Schmidt is a realist, who was never fully at ease with the visionary reform goals of Willy Brandt. He therefore finds it easier to adapt policies to changed conditions. The government promises that what has been achieved will be preserved.

At the Party Conference in 1975 in Mannheim the Party with its Chairman, Willy Brandt, stands fully united behind the administration of Helmut Schmidt. For Brandt the central task henceforth is to support the administration and to "cover its back".

The symbol for the leadership of the SPD is the so-called Troika: Willy Brandt as Chairman, Helmut Schmidt as Federal Chancellor; and Herbert Wehner as Chairman of the SPD fraction in the Bundestag. The collaboration of the three politicians is not always free of conflict. One insider comments that "it is beyond dispute that the old frontlinesmen sometimes scrabble." At the same time, the SPD leadership does not break apart. A biographer of Wehner has added that "their common interest is the Party; Party successes are personal successes; and (personal) defeats are defeats of the Party."