[6][7] Đinđić was born in Bosanski Šamac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia where his father was stationed as an officer of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

[8] His mother Mila Dušanić (c. 1931-2 - 14 March 2016), a housewife, raised him and his elder sister Gordana; the family moved according to his father's jobs.

After being convicted in 1974 by the communist authorities and through Party-controlled media for his role in his attempt to organize an independent political movement of Yugoslav students, Đinđić emigrated to West Germany[11] thanks to the intervention of former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who persuaded authorities to let Đinđić come to Germany instead of serving his sentence in Yugoslavia.

[17] In his embittered speech at the conference during which he resigned his post, Mićunović characterized the manner of Đinđić's takeover of DS as the "combination of Machiavellianism and revolutionary technique".

[17] Though many DS members didn't like the way this transfer of power was executed, symbolically referring to it as "oceubistvo" (patricide), Đinđić managed to quickly move DS away from what he occasionally referred to in derisive terms as the "debate club" towards a modern and efficient organizational structure that functioned according to a business management model.

[19] In February 1994, Đinđić visited Pale to meet with Radovan Karadžić, saying that he had gone to Bosnia to "express solidarity with the people of the Bosnian Serb republic.

As the Bosnian War ended with the signing of the Dayton Agreement in November 1995, in addition to his grip on power domestically, Milošević enjoyed stable support from the international community that recognized him as the "peace and stability factor in the Balkans".

The next chance to dent his armour came at the November 1996 municipal elections, which the DS entered as part of an opposition coalition called Zajedno featuring SPO, DSS, and GSS.

Democratic Party (at the time with a total of only 7,000 members across Serbia) joined Zajedno against Đinđić's personal wishes as he got outvoted on three separate occasions when the decision was discussed internally.

[20] Following opposition victories in key Serbian cities such as Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad, Milošević refused to recognize the results, sparking three months of protest marches by hundreds of thousands of citizens.

[21] Later that year Đinđić made a bold decision to boycott the parliamentary elections on 21 December 1997, thus breaking up the Zajedno coalition.

United only by their political enemy, the coalition "Zajedno" (Together) with Vuk Drašković's SPO and Vesna Pešić's GSS collapsed only four months after their victory.

When Vuk Drašković joined the Yugoslav government in early 1999, this left Đinđić as Serbia's main opposition leader as NATO's war began against Yugoslavia.

[23] A series of mysterious assassinations, including the shooting of Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatović on 7 February 2000 in a restaurant, began taking place.

In April, JAT chairman and Yugoslav United Left member Žika Petrović was gunned down as he was walking his dog.

In late August, former Serbian President Ivan Stambolić disappeared; he had been murdered on Fruška Gora mountain by members of Serbia's Special Operations Unit.

Đinđić and his allies openly accused Milošević of these events, claiming that he had either ordered them or was no longer able to maintain control and should therefore step down.

[24] Đinđić played a prominent role in the September 2000 presidential elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in the 5th October uprising that overthrew Milošević after further street protests.

While Koštunica headlined the effort in October, Đinđić led the broad-based 19-party Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition to its victory in Serbian elections of December 2000.

President Koštunica denounced the extradition as illegal and unconstitutional, while a junior party in the Đinđić coalition government left in protest.

His meetings with Western leaders George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and others strongly indicated that the West supported his politics.

Đinđić had constant disagreements with his ex-coalition partner and then-Yugoslav federal president Vojislav Koštunica, who was his biggest political rival in Serbia itself.

[37] Despite Koštunica's accusations of Đinđić being close to organised crime, the latter always insisted that he was determined to clean Serbia, and created the "Special Tribunal" with a witness protection program.

[38] This alarmed organized crime leaders who were intertwined with elements of the Serbian secret police which remained loyal to the ousted Milošević.

Ulemek, along with Zvezdan Jovanović, was charged with being the ringleader of the assassination plot carried out on 12 March 2003, when Đinđić was fatally shot.

Books published in Serbian: Đinđić and his wife Ružica had a daughter and a son, Jovana and Luka, both minors at the time of his assassination.

[52] Đinđić's death represented a political and moral tragedy to many Serbs who saw in him a statesman of hope who offered peaceful coexistence with neighboring nations, integration to Europe and the rest of the world, economic prosperity and a brighter future.

[citation needed]Following his death, a small but influential movement emerged throughout Serbia and the Serbian diaspora organized around a short documentary about Zoran Đinđić (created by Belgrade director Aleksandar Mandić).

A movement called "Kapiraj" created a network of students and other young people who were committed to copying and distributing the documentary free of charge.

Đinđić is often described as a Machiavellian figure due to his political manoeuvrings, though observers also note his pragmatic and modest approach, traits which contrasted with some of the other Serbian politicians of his time.