Joachim Gauck: The next German President

Joachim Gauck will be the next German president. Late yesterday evening, the leaders of the 4 largest factions* in the Bundestag – forming 89% of the presidential electors – announced that he will be their candidate, making this more a coronation than an election.

Joachim Gauck was born in Rostock in 1940, remaining in what would become East Germany after the war. In 1951, his father was accused of espionage, arrested and sent to Siberia for nearly five years; this experience turned Gauck firmly against the communist system. He found a home in the Lutheran Church, one of the few organisations not directly controlled by the government – he studied theology and became a pastor, closely monitored by the Stasi.

In 1989, as East Germany’s people began to demand freedom en masse, Gauck led his congregation and political activists on weekly demonstrations after service. Following a short stint in the first freely elected East German parliament, he was given responsibility for processing and making available the masses of Stasi documents accumulated over the 40 years of dictatorship.

This work, his down-to-earth nature and ability to engage an audience has won him plaudits from across the political spectrum. He was nominated by the opposition SPD and Greens for the presidency once before – losing to his predecessor Christian Wulff in 2010. Despite annoying some on the left with recent comments critical of the ‘Occupy’ movement, the SPD and Greens once again backed him – along with the governing CDU/CSU and FDP.

Gauck will be the first German president without a political affiliation upon entering office. Although he has broadly remained outside party politics, he is expected to remain an outspoken and passionate character. However, notwithstanding his impressive work during reunification, it is yet to be seen if he can speak with such conviction and gravitas on some of the other problems confronting modern German society.

*CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and Greens ‘agreed’ on Gauck as a compromise candidate – in reality, it was originally the SPD and Greens who supported him, then the FDP jumped on board and publicly backed him. Merkel, on behalf of the CDU/CSU, originally refused – the broadly Catholic, West German faction was apparently uneasy at the idea of East German protestants holding both the chancellorship and presidency. But the FDP would not give ground – the coalition government came surprisingly close to collapse – and Merkel had to bink first.