As some of you already might have heard through the media, German Bundespräsident Christian Wulff has resigned some days ago. This is the result of a discussion in Germany that lasted for weeks!

Christian Wulff was accused of several faux pas, especially by the Presse (press). It all began with a false statment that he made in front of the „Landtag“ of Lower Saxony. He was asked if there is some business relation between him and Unternehmer (businessman) Egon Geerkens. He answered no, but later on, a famous German newspaper found out that Wulff borrowed 500.000 EUR from Geerkens wife to built a house. And Geerken even admitted that Wulff was involved in the execution of this credit.

When Wulff recognized that the Zeitung (newspaper) would publish this story, he called the chief editor and tried to avoid or delay the announcement. But they wouldn´t. Quite contrary, and so a little scandal was perfect.

From this day on, Wulff was on every front page and the affair was the topic of hundreds of talk shows all over Germany. But not enough. New researches have been started and other details showed up that didn´t support Wulff at all. Several Urlaubsreisen (vacation trips), payed by managers and businessmen have been critisized. But Wulff always said that these trips have been made on reasons of friendship and have nothing to do with his Amt (charge).

Anyway, I think things have been gone too far, already by that time, to re-establish confidence in Wulff and so people started to demand his Rücktritt (resignation). When several prosecutions announced that they would research against Wulff in a matter of acceptance of benefits by a public official, he finally resigned on February 17th 2012. In a short speech he said, that researches would proof his Unschuld (innocence). But he also said, that he has made some mistakes and that the charge of a Bundespräsident should no longer be associated with lies and corruption.

I personally don´t judge if he is guilty or not. There are as well a lot of people who say that he is just a victim of the media. Anyway, after weeks of Aufregung (agitation), the whole thing is over now and hopefully, politicians as well as citizens can concentrate on other things again (that are way more important in my opinion).

Ups, I almost forgot to mention another detail about the whole thing: It is proposed by all political parties, that Joachim Gauck should be the next Bundespräsident of Germany. He already has been a Kanditat (candidate) in 2010 when Wulff has finally won after three election rounds.

Some vocabulary of this post:

der Bundespräsident – Federal President
die Presse – press
der Landtag – parliament of a land
der Unternehmer – businessman
die Zeitung – newspaper
die Urlaubsreise – vacation trip
das Amt – charge
der Rücktritt – resignation
die Unschuld – innocence
die Aufregung – agitation
der Kandidat – candidate