Talk:Guido Westerwelle

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Older

Joerg Haider came out as gay?! Okay, that's it. We should get to make trades now, like in sports. - Montréalais

Only rumours about Jörg Haider. Therefore I remove his name. 213.23.20.54 04:15, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This is an asinine article. I don't disagree with the gay part of his bio, but that's all there is to the article. I'm sure he has other accomplishments.

Sadly his accomplishments are basically to be less idiotic than other German politicians, which comes down to not being a Commie. He's definitely no Rathenau.

hello mr. mccarthy! i thought you were dead?

JD vs Dr iur

I changed Mr Westerwelle's title from JD to Dr. iur., because a JD is a professional degree (mostly in the US), whereas Dr. iur. is the academic degree in Germany in law, which requires research and a thesis. The one is thus no translation of the other. Blur4760 15:44, 6 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Homosexuality

I changed the sentece that stated that "In the last years Westerwelle won the discussion over his sexual orientation in the FDP.". First of all, I personally dislike the expression "to win a discussion". Secondly, I don't think there was an actual discussion on his sexuality, i.e. neither did the party discuss whether he is homosexual, nor did they discuss whether he should "change" his sexuality. At the best, it was a point of concern for some. I hope that is okay with GLGerman. Blur4760 17:57, 12 July 2006 (UTC) Yes that s ok, Blur4760, --GLGerman 20:11, 12 July 2006 (UTC)GLGerman[reply]

Infobox

I added the Poltician (Alternative) Infobox. Please expand it if you have any further information. Poeloq 19:47, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Fun politics"

The man may seem ridiculous to many, but he certainly never used the term "Spaßpolitik" himself, which is a creation of journalists who find that he lacks integrity and seriousness. --77.188.126.20 (talk) 16:35, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Firsts"

Of the "firsts" that Westerwelle breaks, the only one I think should be mentioned is that he is, as Vice Chancellor, the highest ranking male homosexual in the modern era. He is behind Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. That should be the limit. Therequiembellishere (talk) 03:46, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And neither should it be mentioned. What actually is the "highest ranking male homosexual"? - Does he get to give orders to all male homosexuals or what? Str1977 ^(talk) 18:35, 28 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I wasn't actually keen on any of their inclusions, I was expecting a surge of "first gay junior coalition leader", "first gay foreign minister", "first gay vice chancellor/deputy prime minister" each ending with "of Germany/of Europe/in the European Union/of the world/in the modern age". Out of these all, the least of evils (IMO) is that his position is the highest any gay man has achieved to date. Considering this hasn't happened, I'm perfectly fine with its exclusion. Therequiembellishere (talk) 02:51, 29 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

His sexual orientation is a private matter that only needs to be briefly mentioned under "personal life". I think the "Gay politicians" category should be removed. What is a "gay politician", someone engaged in gay politics? Urban XII (talk) 06:42, 30 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Attitude towards English

I've been given the impression that one of the more well-known things about Guido Westerwelle is his response to a BBC correspondent who asked him a question in English: "Hier wird nur Deutsch gesprochen". Apparently this caused a bit of a stir. Was it a major thing; should it be in the article? AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 12:47, 30 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No, this should not be in the article. Wikipedia is not news, this is a minor issue. He didn't say "hier wird nur Deutsch gesprochen", he said "just as it's customary to speak English in Great Britain, it's customary to speak German in Germany". It's not surprising that leading politicians prefer to speak their national language when speaking in public. The French have exactly the same policy, and if a reporter asked a French minister or would-be minister to reply in English at a press conference, I'm sure he would refuse as well. The same is likely the case in the UK (the British shadow Foreign Secretary would probably not reply in anything else than his national language). Here Westerwelle explains that he on formal occasions only will speak German. This has nothing to do with an "attitude towards English", rather an attitude towards the national language of his country. Urban XII (talk) 16:22, 30 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, this should rather be an issue concerning the language skills of the BBC correspondent. I very much agree with a person who wrote "What kind of point was the journalist even trying to make, demanding that a German politician speak to him in English? If you lack the language skills to properly conduct yourself, get out of the press conference. I'm sure there are plenty of qualified German-speaking journalists who could take your place." If a German journalist had approached Gordon Brown and asked him to speak in German because he didn't speak English, it would be equally ridiculous. You simply don't send journalists who lack language skills to cover German or French politics. Urban XII (talk) 08:14, 31 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The reasons for Westerwelle to answer only in German are his bad skills in the english language. Everyone in Germany knows that. He does not want to be made fun of. That's it.

And he was too proud to say this to the journalist. His following answer was very rude. The sentence "Es ist Deutschland hier." sounds very stupid in German. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.136.241.210 (talk) 10:19, 2 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]