WHAT’S IN a name? Two of Germany’s leading politicians are finding out as they position themselves ahead of this year’s general election. The first name game involves the new federal economics minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Or, to give him his full title, Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester, Baron from and to Guttenberg.
The 37-year-old is a member one of Germany’s oldest aristocratic families that traces its history back to 12th century Frankonia, now part of northern Bavaria.
As news spread of the appointment of Mr von Guttenberg (Baron and other titles were abolished by the Weimar Republic in 1919 though retained as part of the name), an unknown joker went into action. He altered the new minister’s Wikipedia entry, adding the name “Wilhelm” to the shopping list of given names.
Within hours, dozens of news broadcasts, magazines and newspapers were unknowing victims of the prank. Most embarrassing were the millions of copies of Bild with Mr zu Guttenberg’s name – including Wilhelm – on the front page. It asked its readers: “Is this a name we should note?” “It was an experiment,” said the prankster later in an interview. “I wanted to see what happens when one makes a small change, to see how it spreads out, who picks it up and who notices the mistake”.
After that, Germany’s chastened mainstream media could be forgiven for doing a double-take at the weekend when leading Social Democrat (SPD) politicians began referring to their foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier as “Frank Steinmeier”.
The former Schröder aide has been charged with winning back the chancellery from Angela Merkel in September’s general election – a daunting task for a career civil servant who has never stood for election.To help him out, the party has given him a safe seat in Brandenburg, new glasses, a better haircut, and now ditched the “Walter” from his name.
The message doesn’t appear to have filtered through the party ranks and, on the SPD website the two Mr Steinmeiers still compete for attention. The Berlin press corps expect to hear from the SPD in the coming days that “Walter” was never part of Mr Steinmeier’s name, just some Wikipedia wag’s idea of a joke.