As of: February 27, 2024 5:00 a.m
Former Federal President Christian Wulff had to answer in court from 2013 for accepting benefits. It was the first criminal trial against a former German head of state. Ten years ago today, Wulff was acquitted.
Even the start as Federal President was bumpy: it was only in the third round of voting, after about nine hours, that Christian Wulff achieved an absolute majority in the Federal Assembly on June 30, 2010. The opposition has nominated the independent Joachim Gauck – the SPD and Green candidate, who will later become Wulff’s successor, also receives numerous votes from the CDU/CSU and FDP camps. “There were certainly a lot of unfortunate circumstances in which people from party politics rushed into this office after Horst Köhler resigned,” Wulff said in retrospect in an interview with NDR.de in 2020.
Integration – topic found
In October 2010, Wulff gave the speech that would become a symbol of his presidency. “Islam is now also part of Germany,” he said during his speech on the 20th anniversary of German reunification in Bremen – thereby triggering a broad social discussion. What is somewhat lost is that almost at the same time he calls on the Muslims in the country to increase their efforts with a view to their integration in Germany. Wulff seems to have found his topic. But completely different topics will soon come to the fore.
Wulff affair: From single-family homes to bobby cars
It starts in December 2011 with the first reports about a loan for a single-family home in Großburgwedel near Hanover. Three years earlier, when Wulff was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, the wife of an entrepreneur friend from Osnabrück granted him a private loan of 500,000 euros to buy the house. When asked in the Lower Saxony state parliament about his relationship with the entrepreneur, Wulff concealed the loan.
“The Rubicon has been crossed”
When he got wind that the “Bild” newspaper was researching the topic and was planning to report on it, Wulff called the then editor-in-chief of the tabloid, Kai Diekmann, on December 12, 2011. Diekmann doesn’t answer his cell phone – the famous message follows on his mailbox. “The Rubicon has been crossed,” was one of the angry caller’s quotes. Wulff later states that he was only interested in the timing of publication – not the reporting itself. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” published an article about the phone call. The German press landscape is raging.
The pressure on the Federal President is growing
What follows is an almost endless flood of reports and comments about the alleged influence on press freedom, vacation trips to the properties of business friends and the free use of automobiles. At some point a gift of a bobby car is even up for debate. The media pressure is growing more and more. Wulff comments in writing and regrets not having mentioned the controversial loan in the state parliament. He apologizes to Diekmann for the message on the voicemail. But it’s already too late.
Christian Wulff resigns – debate about honorary pay
The beginning of the end is the initiation of an investigation against Wulff on suspicion of corruption. The Hanover public prosecutor’s office requested that his immunity be lifted – one day later, Wulff resigned as Federal President on February 17, 2012.
The topic of money immediately sparks the next debate: Should Wulff receive the honorary salary intended for former federal presidents? The Federal President’s Office decides that the reasons for his resignation were political – a controversial interpretation. Quite a few see personal reasons as decisive and doubt that the combination of the reason for resignation and a very short term of office justify an honorary salary. But Wulff gets the money, around 240,000 euros per year, for life.
Criminal trial against former head of state ends in acquittal
On November 14, 2013, the trial against Wulff for accepting benefits begins in the Hanover Regional Court: the first criminal trial against a former German head of state in the history of the Federal Republic – including huge media interest.
He did not respond to an offer from the public prosecutor’s office after the investigation was completed to stop the proceedings in return for paying a fine of 20,000 euros. Wulff also turns down the judge’s offer to stop the trial subject to conditions. He wants a “flawless acquittal.” And he actually gets it: a good two years after his resignation, the regional court acquitted him on February 27, 2014. He has been rehabilitated – at least legally.
Friendships and family? No questions, please!
These were also turbulent years in private life: in 2008, Christian Wulff and Bettina Körner, who brought a son from a previous relationship into the marriage, married in a civil ceremony. A son was born in 2008. When Christian Wulff became Federal President, the German tabloids reported in detail about his new favorite couple with glossy home stories and lots of headlines in colorful letters. The Christian Wulff taking advantage affair also puts a strain on the couple’s relationship. The two separated in 2013. In 2015 they reconciled and decided to continue the marriage. The couple married in church in 2015. The separation took place again in 2018.
Years later, Wulff is self-critical: “If I really learned one thing back then, it was that I no longer get involved in private matters, friendships, relationships, family matters,” he told NDR in 2020, ten years after he was elected the youngest Federal President. As a result, the continuation of the relationship with Bettina Wulff no longer receives as much media attention as it once did. In 2021 it will be announced that Christian and Bettina Wulff are a couple again. They will get married again in 2023.
Christian Wulff is now a lawyer and patron
Things are getting quieter for the man from Osnabrück, who, it seems, has closed the chapter. Today Wulff is working as a lawyer again with a law firm in Hamburg and has taken on several honorary patronage positions – for example as president of the German Choir Association and patron of the German Multiple Sclerosis Society. “I am now happy that the content of the term of office has come to the fore again and that everything is no longer overshadowed by the last weeks of the term of office,” said Wulff, looking back.
Honorary citizen of Osnabrück since 2022
Elsewhere too, the political legacy of former Federal President Wulff is once again in focus. In April 2022, the incumbent Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil (SPD), will award him the Lower Saxony State Medal for his services. During Wulff’s time as Prime Minister, he shaped state politics for a decade and a half and left deep traces in the state that are still visible today, said Weil.
The city of Osnabrück will award Wulff, who was born there, honorary citizenship at the end of June 2022. In his laudatory speech, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) particularly emphasized his predecessor’s sentence “Islam is now also part of Germany”: That was an incredibly courageous sentence that was perceived as a provocation, especially in conservative circles, and turned into a There was a time when there were debates with many racist and anti-Muslim undertones, said Steinmeier.
Further information
The former Federal President speaks on “NDR Kultur à la carte” about his Osnabrück homeland and his understanding of democracy. more
If you have any inquiries, please refer to his book
Ten years later, Christian Wulff doesn’t say much about his acquittal in 2014. When it comes to journalistic inquiries, he refers to his 2014 book “At the Top, at the Bottom.” As he says on his homepage, the paperback edition is preceded by an interview that the journalist Manfred Bissinger conducted with him. “I don’t really have anything to add to that,” explains Wulff in February 2024. In the book, the former Federal President describes how, in his view, an affair was staged, what happened behind the scenes and what it feels like to be exposed to attacks . He also names his own mistakes in the book.
Further information
The greatest threat to democracy currently comes from right-wing extremists, said the former Federal President on NDR Info. more
15 Min
On June 30, 2010, Christian Wulff was elected as the new Federal President in the third round of voting. A year and a half later, Wulff finds himself in a whirlwind of affairs. 15 minutes
A home loan affair and its consequences brought down former Federal President Christian Wulff in 2012. In February 2014, the Hanover Regional Court acquitted him of corruption charges. more
This topic in the program:
Hello Lower Saxony | June 30, 2022 | 19:30 o’clock
2024-02-27 11:14:40
#Christian #Wulff #Trial #advantage #ends #acquittal
