THE COVER of Germany’s Stern magazine is usually reserved for Hollywood stars pedalling their new films or naked women illustrating pseudo-medical stories.
Lead stories on politicians are circulation suicide for the popular weekly. So it was a big vote of confidence from them to hand over their cover yesterday to Germany’s new economics minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
In five months, the baron from Franconia, northern Bavaria, has come from nowhere to become the most popular politician in Germany after chancellor Angela Merkel.
A late-term replacement for a little-loved economics minister, his success is all the more extra-ordinary considering that everything about him clashes with the Neidkultur or “culture of jealousy” that pervades German life.
Firstly, he is only an MP since 2002; at just 37, he is young by any measure, by German standards a mere child.
Secondly, he comes from an aristocratic family, viewed in Germany with unease since titles were abolished in 1919 and with outright suspicion following the collaboration of some aristocrats with the Third Reich.
Then there’s his good-looking wife, herself the great-granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck. And, the final count against him: his hair, gelled back in a nod to Michael Douglas in Wall Street.
The German media went to great lengths to make the new arrival in Berlin a figure of ridicule, dining out for days on his full title: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester, Baron from and to Guttenberg.
Yet despite their best efforts, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has become a figure of fascination.
“He is no Obama, but the effect is comparable: a young unspent figure arrives on the political stage,” wrote Stern editor Thomas Osterkorn.
“He shows confidence and manners, wears a few well-cut suits, says a few very sensible things, and suddenly the old guard looks damn old.”
With his glamorous wife, the father of two has become the darling of Germany’s glossy gossip magazines, usually reliant on aristocratic imports to satisfy their readers.
Guttenberg emerged unsinged from his political baptism of fire: two all-night meetings to save Opel. He earned major kudos as the only minister opposed to using taxpayers’ money to prop up a troubled car company many considered long past saving.
His approval rating of 61 per cent – in a time of financial crisis and unpopular economic decisions – has left-leaning political rivals feeling the heat.
Attempts by the Social Democrats (SPD) to cut him down to size backfired badly. When Gerhard Schröder mocked him as the “baron from Bavaria”, Guttenberg dubbed Schröder the “Gazprom diplomat”, a nod to the former chancellor’s controversial Russian consultancy work.
Curiously, Guttenberg’s private wealth – estimates of the family fortune range from €600 million to €800 million – has proven to be a help rather than a hindrance in the quest for public acceptance.
Rather than being perceived as a bored aristocrat playing at working, polls suggest the public view his private wealth as a guarantee of independent thinking.
Guttenberg has tried to play down the hype about his person, attributing it to the “new face factor”.
“I just try to remain authentic and not to tailor my behaviour exclusively to fit political strategic considerations,” he said.
Even though he claims to have “not given any thought” to the idea of becoming chancellor, most political watchers in Berlin predict a bright future for the minister – if he wants it.
“He hasn’t made any serious mistakes and, if he sticks to his part, he could play an important role in German politics,” said Jan Fleischhauer, political correspondent at Der Spiegel magazine.
“It’s precisely because he doesn’t have to work yet puts himself in the service of the country that people respect him.”
Beyond politics, Guttenberg has already become a figurehead for an emerging post-1968 generation of young Germans unashamed to be identified as conservatives.
Asked in an interview if he lived conservative values, Guttenberg replied: “If you consider motivation, decency and family among those values, then I would answer in the affirmative”, before adding the caveat, “but I am a more modern conservative who thinks logically”.