Costly presidential retirees

Yesterday police searched the home of Germany's former president Christian Wulff and seized computers as part of an investigation into his dealings with wealthy business friends . Several officers from the Lower Saxony criminal police searched the premises with the consent of the former president, meaning they did not have to obtain a warrant.


Christian Wulff stepped down as president on 17th February just hours after prosecutors said that they would seek to lift his immunity from prosecution. Despite the dishonourable "retirement" the 52-year-old will receive an annual stipend of 199,000 € annually for the rest of his life, despite the fact that he had stepped down after less than two years in office, 598 days, to be precise. Should he die before his wife, his widow, who is only 38 years old, will step in and receive the full pension for life.


But it is not only this generous pension that infuriates the German public, it is the fact that all formers presidents plus one widow – six all in all – are entitled to an office, staff and a chauffeur driven limousine. Per ex-president this adds up to one million €, or six million € in total for the state pensioners.

Graphic: What Wulff shall receive.

German president resigns after numerous scandals

As the RadicalRoyalist wrote on 21st January and 7th January 2012 German president Christian Wulff has been in trouble since mid-December 2011. This Friday he finally announced his resignation just hours after the prosecutor’s office in Hanover announced that it had asked for the German head of state’s immunity from prosecution to be removed, so that it could open a criminal investigation into allegations that Wulff had improperly granted or accepted favours from businessmen.

The latest scandal involves media allegations that film producer David Groenewold paid for a vacation Wulff spent on the island of Sylt as well as a short break in Munich during Oktoberfest in 2007. A year earlier, Lower Saxony, which Wulff led as state premier at the time, had approved a four-million-euro credit guarantee for one of Groenewold's projects.

In his resignation announcement Wulff was honest and said he enjoyed being president, but that Germany needed someone in the job who large swathes of society trusted. As president Wulff received an annual payment of approximately €213,000 and he can expect to receive the annual salary for the rest of his life. The German taxpayer will also finance an office plus staff and a chauffeur-driven car (certainly not a VW Beetle). Today Germany pays for five "retired" presidents, one since he left office in 1979.

Aren't republics cost effective?

The alternative to any German president is presented here.

Beware if you dance with Wulff

The German president Christan Wulff has been in trouble since mid-December 2011. He did not help his cause by sacking his spokesman without naming any reason on 22nd December. Before the sudden disappearance of Olaf Glaeseker, Christian Wulff had called him “my factotum” and even said “we are like Siamese twins” and "he is my alter ego".

How embarrassing this must be for Wulff to be confronted with this news footage, after Olaf Glaeseker’s office was raided last Thursday, 19th January. He is suspected of corruption and bribery. The offices of event manager Manfred Schmidt, who worked closely with the Wulff's office, when he was still Premier of Lower Saxony, were also searched.

Spiegel.de reports:

Both media reports and official investigations have led to suspicions that Glaeseker had improperly funded a series of conferences called "North-South Dialogue," which Schmidt had organized. The series took place between 2007 and 2009 and were sponsored by Wulff and then-Baden Württemberg Premier Günther Oettinger. In December SPIEGEL reported on allegations that Schmidt earned several hundred thousand Euros that had been provided by business sponsors at a single 2009 event.

In return, it is thought that Schmidt made his holiday home available for free to Glaeseker and his wife for three vacations. At the time, Glaeseker was the government spokesman for Lower Saxony and, as a state official, was not allowed to accept such expensive gifts.

State prosecutors in Lower Saxony say that Wulff is not currently a target of any investigation.

HIH Prince Georg Friedrich at Bellevue Palace
Meanwhile at Bellevue Palace, presently occupied by Christian Wulff, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia had been seen last Monday, 16th January. However, the hope that Wulff was preparing a hand-over of the highest office in Germany to the Hohenzollern Prince, are premature. Wulff isn't ready yet to resign. Instead His Imperial Highness, his wife, HIH Princess Sophie of Prussia and twenty other guests dined at Bellevue Palace. Christian Wulff had invited the heir to the German Crown because after last year's 950 anniversary of the House of Hohenzollern, Germany commemorates this year the 300th anniversary of the birth of King Frederik II of Prussia.

Considering the scandals in which the republican head of Germany is involved, this is certainly a good time to reflect on the advantages of a Monarchy or have read that the Queen had to go to a TV studio to apologise for lies and mistakes? The politicians' president cannot shake of his political past which is plastered with helpful friends and financiers.

German Protesters shout 'Wulff must go!'

Protesters waved shoes in front of the German president's palace Saturday as the opposition issued fresh attacks against him. President Wulff remains under serious pressure over a private loan scandal.


Deutsche Welle published a report on the scandal in the German republic in English.

It took them a while, but finally German Monarchists published a statement on the president's affair here.

A president in training - no end in sight

The scandal involving German president Christian Wulff has been brewing for a month, The Age published just two articles on the topic, both reprints from The New York Times, both they don't go into the details of this failed republican representative: On 3rd January 2012 Wulff scandal a worry for Merkel and on 7th January 2012 Germany finds openness has its limits, a misleading headline, since it is president Wulff, who finds openness harmful.

The German republican model is frequently cited by Australian republicans as one option Australia could adopt should they manage to find a majority to reject the Australian Monarchy. Yet the German model was never properly investigated by the Australian republicans (see: Germany’s president gets elected - and nobody took notice)

Christian Wulff was state premier of Lower Saxony before he managed - with some difficulties - to be elected German president. In 2010 it took him three rounds to gain a majority in the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung consisting of all members of the Bundestag, and a corresponding number of representatives from the federal states). Though Christian Democrats and Liberals, who have been in a coalition government since October 2009, had a solid 21-majority in the Federal Convention, in the first round only 600 of the government’s 644 electors chose to cast a vote in favour of Christian Wulff, when an overall majority of 623 was required. In the second round his share improved slightly to 615.

In the third round, when the absolute majority was no longer required, Mr. Wulff got his ticket to the Bellevue Palace by managing 625 votes (see: A president nobody knows - and no one wants) His predecessor, Horst Köhler, left office, “because he felt insulted and refused to face the public debate on his statements on Afghanistan. This discloses: The wooden Köhler did always try – and was not up to the job. ...” as The Süddeutsche Zeitung put it.

A private loan
The scandal swirling around Mr. Wulff arose on 12th December 2011 but goes back a couple of years and dates to the time, when he was still state premier of Lower Saxony. Early 2010 he had to admit to the state parliament, that had acted against the existing “ministerial law” that forbids members of the state government from accepting gifts. Mr. Wulff and his wife had accepted a free upgrade from a German airline from economy to business class. And he had accepted free accommodation in holiday resorts that were owned by his friend Egon Geerkens. In this context the Greens asked Premier Wulff, what other business relations he had with Mr. Geerkens.

In a response to that question, he gave this answer: “Zwischen Ministerpräsident Wulff und den in der Anfrage genannten Personen und Gesellschaften hat es in den letzten zehn Jahren keine geschäftlichen Beziehungen gegeben.“ (“Between Premier Wulff and the persons and companies concerned there had been no business relations in the past ten years.“) This was formally correct, because the private low-interest loan of € 500,000 was granted in October 2008 by Mr. Geerkens’ wife and not by the business man himself. However, in the follow up to this story it came out, that the former shop assistant Edith Geerkens never had the means to provide a loan. It was her husband who had transferred the money to her bank account and to disguise the traces even more he insisted that Mr. Wulff should receive the money via an anonymous Federal Bank cheque.

The Geerkens couple may or may not have gained political or business advantages through their relationship with Mr. Wulff and their loan, it was just one of a couple of "friendship" services Mr. Wulff received. The proximity to power seems to drive controversial entrepreneur Carsten Maschmeyer. He's the founder of the scandal ridden financial services firm AWD, his fortune is estimated at about € 650 million.

That gives him plenty of money for a friendly favour or two. He's alleged to have donated € 330,000 to the election campaigns of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from the Social Democrats. His generosity wasn't tied, however, to one party or the other. He was apparently also willing to help out Mr. Wulff, who is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Mr. Maschmeyer reportedly paid € 43,000 in 2008 to publicize the then-state premier's book titled "Better Tell the Truth, a title that is haunting him today." Mr. Maschmeyer claims, however, that Mr. Wulff was not aware of his financial support for the book.

Financial Times: The sheep in the Wulff's fur.

President threatens newspaper - which he denies, but refuses to publish the transcript
On 12th December 2011 Germany’s biggest tabloid newspaper BILD was about to publish the private loan story. Mr. Wulff, who was on a state visit in the Gulf countries and had given a speech on the freedom of press in Kuwait the previous evening, called the editor-in-chief of BILD and threatened legal action if it published a story on a private home loan he received at cheap interest rates.

BILD confirmed media reports that the president had left a message on its chief editor Kai Diekmann's voicemail, in which he threatened the paper with legal action and expressed outrage about its plans to publish details of a private home loan that has prompted widespread criticism. After not reaching Mr. Dieckmann, he left a voice message. Mr. Wulff said BILD was going too far and had "crossed a red line" it would be a “declaration of war”. He complaint about what he called the "unbelievable story" about his € 500,000 loan. Wulff finally reached BILD’s editor-in-chief one day later, expressing regret over the tone and content of his earlier phone call.

Mr. Wulff‘s office said last Monday, 2nd January 2012, that he greatly values media freedom and doesn't comment on private or telephone conversations.

Headline: "Wulff really feels sorry for himself."

To contain the damage, Mr. Wulff granted an interview to two journalists from the public TV stations ARD and ZDF. He apologised for the message left on the voicemail, saying he had merely wanted BILD to delay the report for a day, which the newspaper actually did, but Mr. Wulff had withdrawn written answers shortly before the newspapers deadline on 12th December. Mr Wulff said in the interview was an effort to be open about what had happened.

But Mr. Diekmann said in an open letter published on Thursday that Mr. Wulff had been less than forthcoming. "In order to prevent misunderstandings regarding the content and motive of your phone call, we view it as necessary to publish a transcript of your message," Mr. Diekmann wrote. He asked Mr. Wulff for permission to do so, in keeping with German laws regarding the privacy of personal communications.

In his own open letter, Mr Wulff said no. "The words that were spoken in an exceptionally emotional situation were intended for you and no one else," he wrote. "I apologised to you shortly afterwards. You accepted this apology. That put an end to the dispute between us, and I believe that it should remain so."
Wulff: "I am still in training"

In his TV interview Mr. Wulff (52) claimed he was still in presidential training ("Ich lerne noch"). Having assumed the post of president in July 2010, he still wants to be treated as an apprentice who is learning on the job – and that after a political life that started at the tender age of 16. He has never done anything else but be a politician. The best representative for a politicians’ republic, you’d think.

In a Monarchy the heir to the throne starts his/her training at a very early age and not only, when they assume office.