Germany’s ex-First Lady cleaning up

Wulff. A name not that uncommon in German-speaking parts of the world.  It is only one of the different variants we have. Some others include Wulf, Wolff and Wolf. Although the exact meaning is unclear today, it established itself as a reference to the legendary canid. If you would ask people on the street to describe the behaviour of a wolf, quite a few different terms would come up. Personally, I would describe a wolf as a very beautiful animal, powerful, fierce, cunning. Who knows, some attributes might also be applicable for people carrying the name.

Germany’s former president, Christian Wulff, who resigned in February, after the department of public prosecution of Hanover filed for the abrogation of Wulff’s legal immunity as president of the Federal Republic of Germany in order to be able to begin with investigations of corruption, at least managed to get German linguists to get creative. As a result of his more or less legal intrigues, a new verb came up: “wulffen” – which means to babble onto someone’s answering machine, as Wulff did with editor-in-chief of Bild, Kai Diekmann.

Since Wulff stepped down as president, another big discussion started because of the “Ehrensold” – the gratuity sum Germany’s former presidents receive after their services for their country have ended. Of course, in Wulff’s case “services” get a whole new meaning. Germans got furious after they found out that Wulff was to receive 199.000 € per year of tax payers money. Immediately, debates arose on whether such a scandalous and rather fruitless period of presidency was worthy of receiving such a large sum of money for the rest of his life. And for quite a long time too, since Wulff was Germany’s youngest president in history, at age 53.

I have to admit that I also do not agree with the Ehrensold for Christian Wulff. I do not want to play down the work Wulff has done in his time as president and I think it is difficult for third parties to rate Wulff’s efforts. But this large sum of money seems a bit too much, considering that he was only president for about two years. Furthermore, his predecessor Horst Köhler, who stepped down as president due to controversial statements on foreign deployments of the German Bundeswehr, turned down his Ehrensold, even though he was in office much longer than Wulff, having been president of Germany from 2004 – 2010.

Since it was the media who started to uncover the alleged scandals surrounding Wulff, claims have also been made about his wife, ex-First Lady Bettina Wulff, who allegedly has worked in the sexual services industry in her younger years, before she met her husband.

Apparently, she googled herself and was rather unpleased with the results and keywords that popped up. On Friday, she filed an action against Google and also against famous German TV host, Günther Jauch, who had quoted from an article in the “Berliner Zeitung”. According to local newspapers, she pursues a declaration of discontinuance from Jauch about mentioning the topic.

Let’s think about this for a second. I can understand that Mrs. Wulff dislikes connections of her being brought into connection with prostitution from an ethical point of view. And the media making statements without actual facts is also a never ending story. But to order a TV host from keeping his mouth shut and not being allowed to quote what or whom he wants is unacceptable in a nation that so proudly speaks of freedom of press/speech/opinion. In the meantime however, Günther Jauch agreed to the request within a few hours of these legal steps.

Another point that makes you think is the fact that you are allowed to say: “I think/heard that John Doe worked as a toilet cleaner from 2000 to 2001.” Now I am not a lawyer, but in my opinion I only made a statement about a profession I think a certain person had performed in a certain period of time, irrespective of the ethical point of view of the profession. Since prostitution is legal in Germany and employees of the sexual service industry also have to pay taxes and also get statutory health insurance, I really do consider seeing Mrs. Wulff succeed with legal cases for reputational damage as incorrect, when speculating on a former profession. A prostitute who meets the legal requirements such as majority age, health issues etc. is not performing an illegal profession. It would be a whole different story if I would make the statement that a certain John Doe worked as a hit-man or a drug dealer.

A large number of people commented on this story on the internet. Since Mrs. Wulff also filed for compensation for pain and suffering, many believe this is just another addition of the Wulff family trying to increase their wealth. And of course this is not the first time a member of the Wulff family tries to get a muzzle on the press…

If I recall correctly, the majority of Germans do not consider the greater part of  statements from Christian Wulff to be true. Of course, no one can say Bettina Wulff worked in the sexual service industry for sure without having any proof supporting the statement, but honesty is a term most people do not bring into connection with this now infamous surname…

Finally: President Christian Wulff steps down

German president Christian Wulff has finally resigned, after countless scandals were unveiled by the German press. The majority of Germans consider this move to be overdue.

In case you haven’t heard anything about his scandals prior to his resignation, let me enlighten you.

The affairs started in early December, when German newspapers discovered certain questionable and unfair advantages, that Christian Wulff may have had profited from personally. They unveiled, that Wulff supposedly received a home loan with conditions, that no other private person would ever be offered by a bank. The rate of interest was much lower than normally charged by any bank in Germany.

This particular story started, when Wulff had received a private loan of 500.000 € from the wife of a wealthy business man in October 2008, in order to buy a house. At that time, Wulff was prime minister of Lower Saxony. In February 2010, he replied to an oral enquiry in state parliament of Lower Saxony, that he has not had any business relations to entrepreneur Egon Geerkens, whose wife had granted the home loan to Wulff, in the last 10 years.

By the beginning of December 2011, German tabloid newspaper “Bild” wanted to publish a story on Wulff’s private loan. On December 12th, Wulff left a message on the mail box of editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann, that he does not want the story to be published and at least wants the release of the report to be postponed. Apparently, he also threatened Diekmann and spoke of a “final breach” and “war” with publisher Axel Springer AG, if the story were to be released.

But fortunately, Diekmann was not intimidated and released the first report on Wulff’s loan the following day. This was around the time, I started to follow the story and boy, we were all in for an endless list of scandals.

Wulff later regretted in a written statement, to have denied business relations to the Geerkens family in front of state parliament of Lower Saxony. On December 22nd, he openly apologized for any misunderstandings caused on his side. Simultaneously, he fired his spokesman Olaf Glaeseker, who was later accused of corruption and bribery. On January 19th, Glaeseker’s private and official premises were searched on order of the department of public prosecution of Hannover.

I honestly think that you can judge a person’s character by looking at the people he keeps closest to himself. Most people in Germany already considered Wulff to be a liar at that point in time.

On January 4th, Wulff did something many people consider to be incredibly stupid. He gave an interview on public television in order to clear things up and openly apologize for attacking and threatening the press, which is a violation of Germany’s fifth constitutional law. Wulff announced in the interview, that he will answer all questions the press has on the matter of his private loan and that he wants transparency in this matter.

What he did the next day, was the exact opposite. Wulff let his attorney publicize a rather short summary of the affair, which lacked his aforementioned transparency in all aspects. By that time, the entire series of scandals involving the president of the Federal Republic of Germany made other politicians, even of the same party, doubt Wulff’s credibility and honesty. Unfortunately, chancellor Merkel did not want to make any statement about the affair at that time.

The affair surrounding the private loan with the Geerkens family, which was later transformed into a home loan at BW Bank with questionable interest rates as well, was the main story behind Wulff’s string of scandals. He also profited from private vacations, free of charge for Wulff and his family – and paid for by wealthy businesspeople, allegedly “friends” of Wulff. Apparently, this was already the considered standard when Wulff was prime minister of Lower Saxony.

Personally, I could not care less if he took advantage of gratis vacations, these are peanuts in my eyes. But I honestly cannot support a president who owed a private person 500.000 € only a few years ago – this can indicate bias on his part. I don’t even want to think of how much Wulff has damaged the office of presidency in Germany. I am sure he also damaged Germany’s reputation in association  with the term corruption. There are certain cultures on our planet who do judge a people by their honesty and decide whether or not they should do business with them.

Unfortunately, we can’t measure the financial damage Wulff has and will cause by having dragged the office of presidency through a series of scandals, not comparable with any previous German politician.

As I said before, most Germans considered his resignation overdue. Wulff clung on the office of presidency like a dog would on a bone. Politicians are supposed to know when to let go of their jobs before causing irreparable damage. In a certain way, one could compare Wulff to president Assad of Syria, minus the violence.

So what made Wulff finally let go of his job? What scared him so much, that he finally loosened his grip on the office? On February 16th,  the department of public prosecution of Hannover filed for the abrogation of Wulff’s legal immunity as president of the Federal Republic of Germany, in order to be able to begin with investigations of corruption! I think that is enough said at this point to let people decide for themselves, what kind of person the former German president is; I will monitor the outcome of the investigation closely.

What makes me sad, is the fact that it took this long for such a disgraceful person to step down as president. It really bothers me, that there was no pressure from chancellor Angela Merkel to make Wulff step down. Because nowadays we all know, once the credibility of a politician and most of all, a president of a nation that is responsible for an entire continent in a political and financial point of view, is in doubt, chances of a recovery are infinitesimal – 2011 was a great example of that.