Christian Wulff
Encyclopedia
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff (ˈkʁɪstjan ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈvaltɐ vʊlf; born 1959) is the President
of Germany
and a politician
of the Christian Democratic Union
. He was elected
President
on 2010 and publicly swore the oath of office on . A lawyer by profession, he served as Premier of the state
of Lower Saxony
from 2003 to 2010.
and is Roman Catholic
. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the post of President of Germany in more than 40 years. His father left the family, and he grew up with his mother. As a teenager, he took responsibility for the care of his younger sister, after his mother developed multiple sclerosis
. After completing his Abitur
at the Ernst Moritz Arndt
Gymnasium in Osnabrück, Wulff studied law
with a specialisation in economics at the University of Osnabrück
. He joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 1975 . In 1987 and 1990, he passed the first and second state examinations in law, and has since worked as an attorney.
and became its regional chairman in Lower Saxony in 1983. However, he decided to resign from the board in order to pursue his law degree, which he completed in 1986. The same year, he was elected a city councillor in his hometown. Since 1984, he has sat on the CDU's regional party council of Lower Saxony, serving as its chairman since 1994.
The Christian Democrats made Wulff candidate for Premier in the run-up of the 1994 Legislative Assembly elections. However, the popular incumbent Gerhard Schröder
won and secured an absolute majority in the Lower Saxony legislature, leading some observers to doubt the wisdom of the provincial party nominating a young and neophyte candidate for Premier. After four years in opposition, the 1998 legislative assembly election brought another opportunity for Wulff to become Premier. Indeed, the federal Christian Democrat party, led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl
, pinned their hopes on Wulff – a Wulff victory would have stopped the inevitable rise of Schröder to the Social Democrat nomination for Chancellor. However, supported by a wave of sympathy for his candidacy for chancellor in the 1998 federal election, Schröder was returned to power by an enhanced majority – leaving Wulff to serve five more years as provincial leader of the opposition.
Schröder won the 1998 federal election, leaving the post of Premier to his anointed successor, Interior minister Gerhard Glogowski
. The latter soon stumbled over a scandal involving free travel paid by TUI
and was succeeded by Sigmar Gabriel
. In the wake of the 1999 scandal, as well as rising discontent with Schröder's federal cabinet, the Christian Democrats rose in the opinion polls and became a serious contender for power in the 2003 assembly election.
Wulff has been one of the four deputy chairmen of the CDU party at the federal level since 1998, and has been a board member of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
since 2003.
).
Prior to the 2005 Federal Election
, Wulff had been mentioned as a potential candidate for the German chancellorship. Surprisingly, in a spring 2005 poll, 28 percent of all respondents named Wulff as their preferred candidate for the Christian Democrat nomination for Chancellor in the 2006 election. As Wulff only began his first term as Premier in early 2003, he is likely to dismiss such speculations. Speculation had particularly increased since the December 2004 Christian Democrat federal convention in Düsseldorf, when Wulff was re-elected deputy leader of the federal party with roughly 86 per cent of all delegates supporting him. However, the premature dissolution of the Bundestag in 2005 and the subsequent election of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel
has largely put an end to further speculation about Wulff's future.
A Wulff candidacy for the CDU nomination for Chancellor was seen to appeal to northerners and liberals within the Christian Democrats. Outside the mold of a typical conservative, he may have been able to attract swing voters disillusioned with the slowness of reforms, as well as the rather high rates of unemployment in Germany. Indeed, the Premier worked on increasing his visibility beyond Lower Saxony's confines, particularly by appearing frequently on TV shows and giving interviews to the national newspapers. Moreover, Wulff is also acquiring a profile on a broad range of issues, including the reform of the German language, Medicare and social security reform, as well as a modernisation of Germany's federal constitution, the Grundgesetz. In fact, the Premier recently criticised the consensus reached between the Christian Democrat and Social Democrat parties on the modernisation of Germany's constitution, stating that he felt that the provinces had not been given sufficient powers to deal with their own affairs. Wulff has also taken a conservative stand on nuclear energy, advocating an extension of the deadlines for the decommissioning of Germany's nuclear reactors.
In a speech, Wulff also expressed his opposition to euthanasia and warned of a retreat of moral values. This can be seen as the first attempt to formulate a value-based agenda for the 2008 legislative assembly, and more importantly, the 2009 federal elections. In this context, it is important to note that Chancellor Angela Merkel
had been severely criticized for a lack of emotional warmth during the 2005 federal election campaign, leading to a worse-than-expected result for the Christian Democrats.
Wulff announced on 8 January that Lower Saxony would become the first province to approve a new model according to which the government will temporarily pay part of the salaries for low-salary jobs, if the employers concerned are willing to employ an employee concerned on a long-term basis. This pilot is supposed to make new jobs more affordable in Germany's notoriously high-wages environment.
After the 23 May announcement that federal elections will be advanced to September 2005
, Wulff announced that he was not a candidate for the Christian Democrat nomination for Chancellor, particularly as he has not completed his first term as Premier of Lower Saxony. Instead, Wulff declared his support for Angela Merkel
, the CDU leader in the Bundestag. It was expected that the Christian Democrats would win the election and form a government, and that Wulff would be given a position in this government, entering federal politics. However, with the September 18 election resulting in a hung parliament
, the outcome is unclear. Wulff continued to be named as a possible CDU candidate for Chancellor, particularly if Chancellor Merkel failed to secure a decisive mandate in the 2009 federal election.
on 2010, when he won 625 of 1242 votes in the third ballot of the Federal Convention. He became Germany's youngest president at the age of 51. Wulff was sworn in on 2010 in front of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
His main contender in the election was Joachim Gauck
, a civil rights
activist from East Germany and a former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives. Himself not a member of any party, Gauck was nominated by the opposition SPD
and Greens
as their presidential candidate on .
Wulff was succeeded as Premier of Lower Saxony by David McAllister
.
Wulff's candidacy for President of Germany in the 2010 presidential election
was formally confirmed by Angela Merkel
, Guido Westerwelle
and Horst Seehofer
, the heads of the CDU
, FDP
and CSU
parties, during the evening of 2010.
In August 2011 President Wulff opened an economists' conference on with a speech on the euro. He warned the assembled Nobel economics laureates and other financial experts in Lindau, that Berlin could not keep shovelling money to its indebted European neighbors just to satisfy the credit markets. He strongly condemned the European Central Bank
, which has entered a second round of bond buy-ups from heavily indebted euro-zone nations, hinting this scheme to stabilize the euro contradicted the EU's basic treaty. He said that "I regard the huge bond buy-ups of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable," he continued saying, "What is actually being called for in this context? … For whom would you personally stand guarantor … For your children? -- I hope so! For more distant relations? -- ah now it gets a bit more difficult," he said. "Perhaps we would stand guarantor if that was the only way to give the other person a chance to get back on his feet. … Even a guarantor can behave immorally if he is just putting off inevitable insolvency."
(born 1973 in Hanover), on 2008 in a low-key ceremony. She has a son from a previous relationship, and on 2008, she gave birth to their first child together, also a boy.
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President of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and a politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
of the Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
. He was elected
German presidential election, 2010
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 30 June 2010 following the resignation of Horst Köhler as President of Germany on 31 May 2010. Christian Wulff, the candidate nominated by the three governing parties, the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria and...
President
President of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
on 2010 and publicly swore the oath of office on . A lawyer by profession, he served as Premier of the state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
from 2003 to 2010.
Early life and education
Wulff was born in OsnabrückOsnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
and is Roman Catholic
Roman Catholicism in Germany
The German Catholic Church, part of the worldwide Catholic Church, is under the leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the German bishops. The current president of the conference is Robert Zollitsch, the archbishop to Freiburg, the country's second largest diocese with 2.07 million Catholics...
. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the post of President of Germany in more than 40 years. His father left the family, and he grew up with his mother. As a teenager, he took responsibility for the care of his younger sister, after his mother developed multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
. After completing his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
at the Ernst Moritz Arndt
Ernst Moritz Arndt
Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalistic and antisemitic author and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany, and had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions...
Gymnasium in Osnabrück, Wulff studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
with a specialisation in economics at the University of Osnabrück
University of Osnabrück
The University of Osnabrück is a public university located in the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany.In 2010 it was attended by 9,298 students. In 2009, the staff of 1,570 consisted of 214 professors, 662 additional academic personnel and 694 non-academic personnel...
. He joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 1975 . In 1987 and 1990, he passed the first and second state examinations in law, and has since worked as an attorney.
Political career
Since 1975, Wulff has been a member of the CDU. From 1978 to 1980, he served as federal chairman of the Schülerunion, a political high school student organization affiliated with the Christian Democrats. From 1979 to 1983, he was on the executive board of the Junge UnionJunge Union
The Junge Union Deutschlands or JU is the jointyouth organisation of the two conservative German political parties CDU and CSU...
and became its regional chairman in Lower Saxony in 1983. However, he decided to resign from the board in order to pursue his law degree, which he completed in 1986. The same year, he was elected a city councillor in his hometown. Since 1984, he has sat on the CDU's regional party council of Lower Saxony, serving as its chairman since 1994.
The Christian Democrats made Wulff candidate for Premier in the run-up of the 1994 Legislative Assembly elections. However, the popular incumbent Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
won and secured an absolute majority in the Lower Saxony legislature, leading some observers to doubt the wisdom of the provincial party nominating a young and neophyte candidate for Premier. After four years in opposition, the 1998 legislative assembly election brought another opportunity for Wulff to become Premier. Indeed, the federal Christian Democrat party, led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
, pinned their hopes on Wulff – a Wulff victory would have stopped the inevitable rise of Schröder to the Social Democrat nomination for Chancellor. However, supported by a wave of sympathy for his candidacy for chancellor in the 1998 federal election, Schröder was returned to power by an enhanced majority – leaving Wulff to serve five more years as provincial leader of the opposition.
Schröder won the 1998 federal election, leaving the post of Premier to his anointed successor, Interior minister Gerhard Glogowski
Gerhard Glogowski
Gerhard Glogowski is a German politician .-Education:After Glogowski finished public school in Bonn he completed an apprenticeship as Toolmaker. In parallel, he attended night school where he finished his Abitur...
. The latter soon stumbled over a scandal involving free travel paid by TUI
TUI AG
TUI AG is a German multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hanover. Until 2001 it was an industrial and transportation company named Preussag AG, which in the mid-1990s decided to reinvent itself as a tourism, shipping, and logistics company...
and was succeeded by Sigmar Gabriel
Sigmar Gabriel
Sigmar Gabriel is a German politician currently chairing the Social Democratic Party of Germany .On 15 December 1999, after the resignation of Gerhard Glogowski, who had succeeded Gerhard Schröder in office, Gabriel became Minister-President of Lower Saxony and served until 4 March 2003...
. In the wake of the 1999 scandal, as well as rising discontent with Schröder's federal cabinet, the Christian Democrats rose in the opinion polls and became a serious contender for power in the 2003 assembly election.
Wulff has been one of the four deputy chairmen of the CDU party at the federal level since 1998, and has been a board member of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Konrad Adenauer Foundation
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a German political party foundation associated with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union . The foundation's headquarters are located in Saint Augustine and Berlin. Globally, the KAS has 78 offices and runs programs in over 100 countries...
since 2003.
2003 state election
With Lower Saxony announcing deeper cuts of education and municipal services, the stage was set for the 2003 election campaign. Wulff entered the race as the favourite to win the election and essentially campaigned on a platform of fiscal restraint and clear-cut reforms in the areas of law enforcement and education. Both issues were decisive in the assembly elections that led to a change in fortunes for the two major parties. The Christian Democrats, in the political wilderness since the 1990 Schröder victory, were returned to power in the Legislative Assembly, gaining 48.3% of the vote. Wulff was sworn in as Premier on 2003, as the head of a coalition between centre-right Christian Democrats and liberal Free Democrats (FDPFree Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
).
Policies
As Premier, Wulff pursued a multitude of reforms, including a restructuring of the primary education system in Lower Saxony, as well as an increase of police officers on the beat. When Wulff took office, Lower Saxony faced a severe budget crisis, resulting from years of public deficits. Painful cuts to public expenditure were enacted and implemented against considerable political resistance. The measures included cuts in university funding and in benefits for the blind. Other policies concern the reform of the administration (especially the abolition of certain district authorities). Budgetary problems have continued to overshadow Wulff's policies, albeit with somewhat less pressure. Many measures have remained controversial.Prior to the 2005 Federal Election
German federal election, 2005
German federal elections took place on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on 1 July...
, Wulff had been mentioned as a potential candidate for the German chancellorship. Surprisingly, in a spring 2005 poll, 28 percent of all respondents named Wulff as their preferred candidate for the Christian Democrat nomination for Chancellor in the 2006 election. As Wulff only began his first term as Premier in early 2003, he is likely to dismiss such speculations. Speculation had particularly increased since the December 2004 Christian Democrat federal convention in Düsseldorf, when Wulff was re-elected deputy leader of the federal party with roughly 86 per cent of all delegates supporting him. However, the premature dissolution of the Bundestag in 2005 and the subsequent election of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
has largely put an end to further speculation about Wulff's future.
A Wulff candidacy for the CDU nomination for Chancellor was seen to appeal to northerners and liberals within the Christian Democrats. Outside the mold of a typical conservative, he may have been able to attract swing voters disillusioned with the slowness of reforms, as well as the rather high rates of unemployment in Germany. Indeed, the Premier worked on increasing his visibility beyond Lower Saxony's confines, particularly by appearing frequently on TV shows and giving interviews to the national newspapers. Moreover, Wulff is also acquiring a profile on a broad range of issues, including the reform of the German language, Medicare and social security reform, as well as a modernisation of Germany's federal constitution, the Grundgesetz. In fact, the Premier recently criticised the consensus reached between the Christian Democrat and Social Democrat parties on the modernisation of Germany's constitution, stating that he felt that the provinces had not been given sufficient powers to deal with their own affairs. Wulff has also taken a conservative stand on nuclear energy, advocating an extension of the deadlines for the decommissioning of Germany's nuclear reactors.
In a speech, Wulff also expressed his opposition to euthanasia and warned of a retreat of moral values. This can be seen as the first attempt to formulate a value-based agenda for the 2008 legislative assembly, and more importantly, the 2009 federal elections. In this context, it is important to note that Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
had been severely criticized for a lack of emotional warmth during the 2005 federal election campaign, leading to a worse-than-expected result for the Christian Democrats.
Wulff announced on 8 January that Lower Saxony would become the first province to approve a new model according to which the government will temporarily pay part of the salaries for low-salary jobs, if the employers concerned are willing to employ an employee concerned on a long-term basis. This pilot is supposed to make new jobs more affordable in Germany's notoriously high-wages environment.
Wulff and the 2005 federal elections
Due to his popularity in Lower Saxony, and in federal opinion polls, Wulff was considered to be a contender for the office of Chancellor.After the 23 May announcement that federal elections will be advanced to September 2005
German federal election, 2005
German federal elections took place on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on 1 July...
, Wulff announced that he was not a candidate for the Christian Democrat nomination for Chancellor, particularly as he has not completed his first term as Premier of Lower Saxony. Instead, Wulff declared his support for Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
, the CDU leader in the Bundestag. It was expected that the Christian Democrats would win the election and form a government, and that Wulff would be given a position in this government, entering federal politics. However, with the September 18 election resulting in a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
, the outcome is unclear. Wulff continued to be named as a possible CDU candidate for Chancellor, particularly if Chancellor Merkel failed to secure a decisive mandate in the 2009 federal election.
President of Germany
Christian Wulff was elected President of GermanyPresident of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
on 2010, when he won 625 of 1242 votes in the third ballot of the Federal Convention. He became Germany's youngest president at the age of 51. Wulff was sworn in on 2010 in front of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
His main contender in the election was Joachim Gauck
Joachim Gauck
Joachim Gauck is a German politician, journalist and theologian. After a brief political career during Die Wende in Eastern Germany, the co-founder of the New Forum was elected member of the People's Chamber for the Alliance 90 in 1990...
, a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist from East Germany and a former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives. Himself not a member of any party, Gauck was nominated by the opposition SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
and Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
as their presidential candidate on .
Wulff was succeeded as Premier of Lower Saxony by David McAllister
David McAllister (politician)
David James "Mac" McAllister is a German politician of the conservative Christian Democratic Union . On 1 July 2010 he was elected Minister-President of the state of Lower Saxony, succeeding Christian Wulff, who resigned following his election as President of Germany...
.
Wulff's candidacy for President of Germany in the 2010 presidential election
German presidential election, 2010
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 30 June 2010 following the resignation of Horst Köhler as President of Germany on 31 May 2010. Christian Wulff, the candidate nominated by the three governing parties, the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria and...
was formally confirmed by Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
, Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle [] is a German liberal politician, who, since 28 October 2009, has been serving as the Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and who was Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He is the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions...
and Horst Seehofer
Horst Seehofer
Horst Lorenz Seehofer is a German politician . He was Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and served as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the cabinet of Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2008...
, the heads of the CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
, FDP
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
and CSU
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
parties, during the evening of 2010.
In August 2011 President Wulff opened an economists' conference on with a speech on the euro. He warned the assembled Nobel economics laureates and other financial experts in Lindau, that Berlin could not keep shovelling money to its indebted European neighbors just to satisfy the credit markets. He strongly condemned the European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
, which has entered a second round of bond buy-ups from heavily indebted euro-zone nations, hinting this scheme to stabilize the euro contradicted the EU's basic treaty. He said that "I regard the huge bond buy-ups of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable," he continued saying, "What is actually being called for in this context? … For whom would you personally stand guarantor … For your children? -- I hope so! For more distant relations? -- ah now it gets a bit more difficult," he said. "Perhaps we would stand guarantor if that was the only way to give the other person a chance to get back on his feet. … Even a guarantor can behave immorally if he is just putting off inevitable insolvency."
Family
Christian Wulff met his first wife, lawyer Christiane Wulff (born 1959), when they were both law students in Osnabrück in 1983. They married in March 1988, and have a daughter, Annalena (born 1993). In June 2006, Wulff announced that he would divorce his wife. Wulff subsequently married an aide from the PM's Office, Bettina KörnerBettina Wulff
Bettina Wulff is the wife of German President Christian Wulff.-Childhood & family:Bettina Wulff was born Bettina Körner on October 25, 1973 in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony. She is the second child of parents Inge and Horst Körner...
(born 1973 in Hanover), on 2008 in a low-key ceremony. She has a son from a previous relationship, and on 2008, she gave birth to their first child together, also a boy.
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