The President of Germany is mainly a symbolic figure. Rather like the monarch in a constitutional monarchy, there is the responsibility to sign bills into legislation, but no power to change them. There is the possibility of delaying things by leaving bills unsigned for a time, but that is about the limit.
The role then is mainly one of perception - constitutionally required, elected by both houses of the German Parliament, and a figurehead for the Federal Republic.
After the previous holder, the moderate Conservative Christian Wulff, left his office last week surrounded by a corruption scandal (it doesn't look good when the figurehead of the state has his hand in the till), his replacement became an unusually loud and obvious public story. Eventually the job will go to Wulff's opponent in the 2010 choice for President - Joachim Gauck (an election in the German Parliament still has to take place, but it is almost a formality).
Gauck is known for being a staunch anti-Communist in the former DDR, a pursuer of members of the Stasi in the post-DDR era, and a figure of considerable moral standing. That he is almost totally apolitical (apart from his staunch anti-Communism) helped considerably. None of the mainstream non-Communist parties would claim him as their own.
He took some selecting though, as he did not immediately win the support from Angela Merkel. Quite why is not clear. Both Gauck and Merkel are from the former DDR, he was a Protestant pastor, she the daughter of a Protestant pastor, both were vocal opponents of the former regime in the DDR. Politics as usual? She did not pick him, therefore he was a bad choice?
One point with Gauck is that he is already 72 years old! Good job that he was not applying for a regular position in industry or as an IT specialist wharrever. He would have been written off as far too old!
On the subject of which ....
In the area of sport this weekend a similar story.
Unlike in some other countries, Germany's capital city (for all its 4 million population) is not the major hub of the national game - football (soccer to North American readers) teams do not abound in the city the way they do in London, for example.
In the top flight of the Bundesliga, there is one team, Hertha, and one in the second, Union. Hertha are a massively supported team, but invariably prone to financial difficulties and historically more likely to be flirting with relegation to the second division than competing with Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund for the title.
After the recent fiasco of firing two team managers in scarcely two months, on Sunday they appointed Otto Rehhagel to be their team manager until the end of the season. By any stretch of the imagination, Rehhagel is a significant name in both the Bundesliga (he led Werder Bremen to two league titles, and Kaiserslautern to one) and internationally (leading a mediocre Greek national team to winning Euro 2004 must still be the achievement among achievements!).
He looks and sounds very healthy. He will have to be - he is 73 years old, and trying to turn the current Hertha team into a winning team is going to be incredibly difficult. And the media attention in Berlin is pretty much what you might expect. If he had been in Freiburg or Augsburg, then the expectations might have been similar, but the public attention would have been less.
But I will wish him well. These temporary appointments do not always work out, even for gifted coaches. In similar circumstances last season, Christoph Daum failed to turn Eintracht Frankfurt round, for example - they failed to win a game while he was in charge and they were still relegated. For his pains Daum has had to give up the glories of beautiful Frankfurt for Bruges of all places - I wonder how his command of Flemish is coming along ....
You would anyway imagine that a 73-year-old man would find better things to do with his time than possibly damage his own legend? Maybe, but as a slightly younger man, I will tell you from experience that the chance to enhance your reputation is always worth the risk. Better have the opportunity while it still exists. And avoid the stagnation that is the alternative!
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