Ole von Beust

First term

On 31 October 2001, Ole von Beust became First Mayor of Hamburg.[2]

When Hamburg experienced an exodus of jobs after major corporations including cigarette-maker Reemtsma, travel and shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, haircare products-maker Hans Schwarzkopf and the Vereins and Westbank AG were acquired by companies outside of Hamburg, von Beust had the city's investment arm, the Hamburger Gesellschaft für Beteiligungsverwaltung, join forces with retailer Tchibo for the acquisition of cosmetics maker Beiersdorf in 2003. This put American multinational Procter & Gamble out of the bidding and preserved Beiersdorf as a publicly traded, stand-alone company in Hamburg.[4]

As host of Hamburg's annual St. Matthew's Day banquet for the city's civic and business leaders, von Beust invited several high-ranking guests of honour to the city, including Queen Silvia of Sweden (2003), King Abdullah II of Jordan (2005), Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (2006), President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania (2008).

On 19 August 2003, von Beust dismissed his vice-mayor, Ronald Schill, causing a scandal. Von Beust had earlier dismissed Walter Wellinghausen, senator of the interior and Schill's most important official, without consulting Schill beforehand. This was due to public allegations of misconduct on Wellinghausen's part. In a private conversation, Schill then demanded that von Beust take back the dismissal, allegedly using personal threats. Von Beust then decided to dismiss Schill as well.

In the (preassigned) press conference Schill held minutes after he had heard of his own dismissal, he spoke vaguely of "homosexual relationships", a "flat in an infamous hustler district" and "certain things happened that let one infer the occurrence of love acts" between von Beust and Roger Kusch, who von Beust had appointed minister (in German city-states "senator") of justice.[5] Von Beust in turn stated that Schill threatened to make his alleged liaison with Kusch public under the premise that von Beust intermingled public and private affairs. He said he had no sexual relationship with Kusch, that they merely knew each other for 25 years and were good friends, and that von Beust was Kusch's landlord. "This is all – absolutely all", according to von Beust.[5][6]

His unprepared statement to the press quickly earned Schill a homophobic reputation. A popular radio-station broadcast a song calling him "Mega-Proll" (mega redneck) and gay and lesbian associations protested vocally. Schill however later affirmed von Beust's version of the story, except for the accusations of blackmail, saying that he warned von Beust to stay clear of nepotism, and that this had nothing to do with von Beust's sexual orientation. He stated "I have nothing against homosexuals".

In a later interview, von Beust's father confirmed that his son is indeed homosexual.[7] Von Beust himself considers his sexual orientation a private matter; when asked directly he usually ironically refers the interviewer to his father. He has been in a relationship with his partner Lukas Förster since 2009 when the high school student completed an internship at the town hall. In 2013, the 56-year-old ex-mayor married his 22-year-old partner.[8]

Second term

Ole von Beust 2006 as guest of honor at the Von Steuben Day in New York

The Hamburg elections of 29 February 2004, ended with an unprecedented landslide victory for Ole von Beust and the CDU, with the party achieving an overall majority in the city-state's parliament.[6] The CDU gained 47.2 percent of the vote, a full 21-point increase from the previous election in September 2001. This was the first time since 1993 the city-state has had only a single ruling party.

Under von Beust's leadership, the Hamburg state government made the decision to commence construction of the Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter.

Between 2007 and 2009, von Beust was one of 32 members of the Second Commission on the modernization of the federal state, which had been established to reform the division of powers between federal and state authorities in Germany.

Third term

In the Hamburg elections of 24 February 2008, the CDU gained 42.6 percent of the vote. Thus, the CDU continued to be the strongest party in Hamburg.[9] However, since the CDU lost its absolute majority, it formed a coalition government with the Greens. At the time, the two party's cooperation was widely seen as a test for a possible coalition at the national level.[10]

In February 2009, von Beust and Minister President Peter Harry Carstensen of Schleswig-Holstein agreed on a €13 billion bailout of state-owned shipping financier HSH Nordbank.[11] The two states were forced to intervene after the SoFFin fund, which had been set up by the federal government in 2008 to stabilize the financial markets, said it could not help out HSH Nordbank until it got rid of all its bad debts.[12]

Ahead of the 2009 national elections, von Beust was tipped as potential Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel; in the negotiations on a coalition agreement with the FDP, however, the position went to Dirk Niebel.[13]

In 2010, von Beust became the first German state leader to indicate that his state was in principle willing to provide humanitarian solutions for former Guantanamo inmates approved for release; Hamburg later accepted one released detainee.[14]

On 18 July 2010, von Beust announced his resignation, to take effect on 25 August.[15] Leaving office alongside von Beust were Karin von Welck, Hamburg's State Minister for Culture, and Volkmar Schoen of the senate chancellery.[16]

Shortly after, voters in Hamburg toppled von Beust's proposed education reforms in the city-state's first binding referendum. The vote assured the preservation of Hamburg's four-year primary schools, rather than extending primary education to six years, which the ruling coalition of Christian Democrats and Greens had proposed.[17]