Germany: A president from the ex-communist East

“Almost a generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Germany is entering a new era, said Mathias Döpfner in the Berlin Bild. For the first time, two former citizens of communist East Germany will hold the country’s top posts. Angela Merkel was a trailblazer when she became chancellor in 2005, and later this month a fellow East German, Joachim Gauck, will be elected by a special assembly to the largely ceremonial post of president. Merkel long opposed Gauck’s candidacy—he’s much more liberal than she is, and was championed by other parties. But she lost her first two presidents to scandal: Horst Köhler resigned in 2010 after making unfortunate comments about the military, and Christian Wulff stepped down in disgrace last week amid allegations of bribery. At this point, even Merkel’s conservative party had to concede that it was time for a president with unquestioned moral authority. A Protestant minister, Gauck was a prominent pro-democracy activist during the communist era, and he presided over the opening of the Stasi secret police files thereafter. “He is a breath of fresh air,” blowing away the stench of corruption.

For us Easterners, Gauck’s selection is inspiring, said Cornelius Pollmer in the Munich Süddeutsche Zeitung. Our parents’ generation had no “political and intellectual elite” to look up to, since those in power were totalitarian oppressors. So for younger people raised in the former East Germany, Gauck is an important role model. But in a broader sense, it is refreshingly unremarkable to have an East German president—after all, the current cabinet has “a wheelchair-bound man, an openly gay man, a young mother, and a Vietnamese man.” Gauck is just one more example of how Germany has changed in the past two decades.

But he’s no mere token, said Heribert Prantl, also in the Süddeutsche. “Joachim Gauck is a clever and authoritative man,” and a strong personality. “He is not an easy candidate; he thinks emotionally, talks emotionally, and acts emotionally. He will be an unpredictable president, and he’s sure to ruffle some feathers.” At bottom, though, he just needs to be honest, said Brigitte Fehrle in the Frankfurter Rundschau. All we really require of our president in this country is someone who can represent us well to the world and give “one or two good speeches.” Gauck, an accomplished preacher, surely has “at least 50” decent orations in him.

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He should start giving them right away—Europe needs him, said Torsten Krauel in the Hamburg Die Welt. Like Merkel, ���Gauck has already experienced a situation like the euro crisis” by living through the collapse of East Germany. But unlike her, he doesn’t have to “defend Germany’s national interests.” He is free to speak for all. That’s why he should go to Greece as soon as possible. “Gauck knows how it feels when society is unstable. Standing by the Acropolis, he can find the right words for a Europe that should not stop believing in itself.”