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.

Read More

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.

Read More

Royal Wedding in Germany
No need for being jealous anymore, Germans got their own royal wedding yesterday, the third big event of this kind in Europe after the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in April and the Monaco wedding in July.

Melbourne’s tabloid newspaper HeraldSun covered the wedding, a stunned public watched in Germany: Germans rediscover royal glamour. The Age was late and had an article on the paper's website on 29th August: Kaiser heir and princess join royal wedding fever.

Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, head of the Hohenzollern family and great-great-grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, married Princess Sophie of Isenburg, in the Friedenskirche (Peace Church) in Potsdam.

The House of Windsor was represented by Lord Nicholas Windsor, son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Lady Paola Windsor with their children Albert and Leopold.

Portugal's Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Bragança, and his wife Isabel, Duchess of Bragança, attended the wedding.

Prince El-Hassan bin Talaal of Jordan and Princess Sarvath of Jordan

From Belgium came Prince Laurent, King Albert's son.

King Mihai I of Romania had sent his eldest daughter, Crown Princess Margarita and her husband.

After the ceremony, the couple travelled by a carriage drawn by six horses to Sanssouci Palace for a dinner and ball. Several thousand onlookers lined the streets to see and acclaim the couple.

The public TV station Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) broadcast the wedding in a three hour programme, which was also streamed live on the internet and was viewable even here in Australia.

Read More

Huis Doorn: German Monarchists commemorate the Kaiser

On the 70th anniversary of Kaiser Wilhelm II's death German Monarchists visited Huis Doorn outside Doorn, a small town near Utrecht in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He passed away on 4th June 1941 and was buried in a mausoleum in the gardens as he had stated in his testament that he wished to be buried in Germany only when the Monarchy was restored. That has not happened in the past 70 years, therefore the Kaiser's remains still rest in the country that granted him asylum in 1918.

Tobias, a friend of the Radical Royalist and fellow Monarchist, took these photos on 4th June 2011 and gave permission to publish them.

The entrance gate to Huis Doorn's compound.

Huis Doorn, a classic 14th century manor house.

Huis Doorn, a classic 14th century manor house.

The Kaiser's bust in front of Huis Doorn

The Kaiser's mausoleum.

The Kaiser's mausoleum.

German Monarchists at the Kaiser's mausoleum.

Read More

German firm threatens to sack workers involved in Iran demonstrations

Old ghosts haunt the Germans: Civil unrest is verboten. And business dealings take the preference and should not be disturbed. There's nothing particular German in this attitude, other countries follow the same rules, but in this case, a German company was caught red handed.

A German company in Iran threatened its employees with the sack, should they participate in demonstrations against the mullah’s regime in Tehran. According to a Deutsche Welle report, on 21st July the German company Knauf sent out a letter to its three subsidiaries operating in Iran. The document is addressed "to all employees of Knauf Iran, Knauf Gatch and Iran Gatch," threatening that if anyone from the company "gets caught demonstrating against the current government, he or she will be immediately dismissed".

The letter is signed by Isabel Knauf, a member of the founding family of the Bavaria-based construction materials company. She's on the supervisory board of Knauf's operations in Iran.

Iranians living in Germany have bombarded the company with threatening calls and e-mails, company spokesman Jörg Schanow said last Friday. Schanow confirmed the letter was sent but he called the wording of the document very "unfortunate."

Knauf "strictly apolitical"?
In the letter, Isabel Knauf justified the threat to dismiss staff by saying that Knauf was "strictly apolitical" and reminded "all employees that they are not only representing their private opinion when being politically active, but that their actions could fall back negatively on our Knauf companies in Iran."

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, however, there may be concrete reason behind Knauf's decision to send out the controversial letter. The newspaper says that a senior German-Iranian employee of the company had been arrested during earlier demonstrations. It says the Tehran authorities told Knauf that their executive would only be released if it forced its employees to refrain from any involvement in the pro-opposition protests.

Strange as it may look, the policy of Knauf resembles very much to the behaviour of German companies during the late Shahanshah’s reign.

In Januar 1973 Deutsche Bank, Daimler-Benz, Telefunken, Hoechst, Bayer, BASF and other companies had joined hands for a congratulating message to His Imperial Majesty. They all praised “His Majesty Shahanshah Aryamehr” for having intiated the White Revolution on 26th January 1963.


This full page advertisment was published in the Tehran based German language weekly “Die Post” on 22nd January 1973. Der Iranian-German weekly has long gone as has the devotion of German companies for the Monarchy.

What remained is the odd wish to please the present dictatorial regime and prevent their employees from seeking a freer regime. No hope for the Germans to support Monarchists at this stage. Only after the return onto the peacock throne will the German be pleased to serve His Imperial Majesty Shahanshah Reza II.

Read More