ANALYSIS:The mouse that didn't roar, Germany's president resigned after raising a genuinely interesting matter – his country's role in the world, writes DEREK SCALLY
WHEN THE relatively unknown Horst Köhler was nominated as German president in 2004, the tabloid newspaper Bild underlined the point by asking on its front page: “Horst Who?” Six years later the German president resigned in a fit of pique and a Berlin tabloid headlined the story: “Horst: Why?”
Why indeed? Köhler resigned on Monday after deciding the office of president had been impugned by criticism of his remarks on the German military. He suggested German public opinion was coming around to the idea of using the military to defend its interests abroad, including economic interests.
For a country where military deployments cause serious stomach aches, and operate under a tight parliamentary mandate, it was unsurprising that his words attracted strong opposition. On Monday Köhler said he regretted that his remarks had been misunderstood but, rather than explain what he actually meant, he resigned.
Most Germans are perplexed by the departure of a president who, though popular, is unlikely to be missed. The press reaction to his departure was largely negative yesterday, while even sympathetic commentators suggested his real reason for resigning was frustration at the narrow path he was expected to tread as president, similar to that of his Irish counterpart.
The confusion is tinged with disappointment because his rich life experience should have made him a much more memorable president than he was.
He was born to ethnic German parents in what is now Poland and was just two when the family was expelled and forced to flee west to Germany. It’s a trauma that is shared by millions of German families who know what it is like to lose everything, but one he chose not to draw on in his public role.
As adviser to Helmut Kohl, Köhler organised the financing for German unification. Like few others in the German political scene, he knew in detail the vast scale, cost and effort of the massive endeavour. Reminding people of the sacrifices required, by East and West Germans alike, would have been a worthy task for the president – and one urgently needed in Germany 20 years on. But again, it wasn’t to be.
Köhler has extensive banking experience after a time at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and four years as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Someone like that as head of state could have been a gift in times like these, offering people orientation, reassurance and, above all, explanations about what is going on.
Köhler seemed to recognise this when he warned in 2008 that the financial market was an uncontrollable “monster that must be put in its place”. In a magazine interview he attacked “bizarrely well-paid” fund managers who “barely understood” the complexity of their leverage instruments that had “very nearly caused the collapse of the world finance markets”.
It was an angry and considered outburst from a man who knew what he was talking about, yet he chose to not follow it up. Today Germany faces painful cutbacks as a result of the recession and the need to finance a multi-billion rescue plan for Greece and the euro.
With his constitutional distance from daily politics, Köhler could have played a crucial, calming role. A moral authority was desperately needed to point out the danger of recent tabloid attacks on Greece.
He could have reminded Germans of the benefits they have enjoyed through the single currency and pointed out how assisting Greece is still preferable to allowing Athens take down the entire euro zone.
With his banking background, it would have been very interesting to have heard his thoughts on the best way out of the financial crisis.
But, for months, nothing of note emerged from his official residence of Bellevue Palace. After saying so little for so long, it was ironic that he resigned on Monday after finally touching on an interesting question: Germany’s role in the world.
In the good old days, West Germany used its cheque book to buy its way out of international requests for military assistance or EU solidarity.
For a decade now Germany is once again playing a military role in the world. Köhler said he was trying to look beyond the unpopular Afghanistan mission to start a discussion about Germany’s military role in the future.
Is Germany now a “normal” country that does “normal” things like defend its economic interests abroad, with military means if necessary? Is it a “normal” EU member state that, like all others, holds out for the best deal for itself before agreeing to help others?
Recent events in the EU have prompted a heated discussion about the “new” Germany all over the continent, just not yet in Germany. Rather than kick off that debate, Horst Köhler blundered into a gap between old rhetoric about Germany’s place in the world and its as-yet undefined new role.
It’s a slippery business but one that needs to be addressed: hopefully Köhler’s successor will manage to do so with more success.
Derek Scally is Berlin Correspondent