On 18 September 1987, Uwe Barschel, the minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein, faced accusations at a press conference. He said: … gebe ich Ihnen, gebe ich den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern des Landes Schleswig-Holsteins und der gesamten deutschen Öffentlichkeit mein Ehrenwort – ich wiederhole: Ich gebe Ihnen mein Ehrenwort! – dass die gegen mich erhobenen Vorwürfe haltlos sind. (I give you, the citizens of Schleswig-Holstein and the entire German public my word of honor, I repeat, I give you my word of honor, that the accusations against me are groundless.) The sworn statements he presented turned out to be false. He resigned as minister-president on 2 October 1987.
politics
Kohl’s Word of Honor to the Donors
On 30 November 1999, former chancellor Helmut Kohl confirmed in a television interview that the secret CDU accounts existed. He said he had given the donors his Ehrenwort, his word of honor, not to name them. On 18 January 2000, under pressure from the CDU leadership, he resigned as the party’s honorary chairman. On 3 March 2001, the regional court in Bonn agreed to end the investigation against him, and he had to pay 300,000 DM. In this case, keeping his word meant withholding the names.
“That Is Unfair”
On 29 August 2006, Vice Chancellor Franz Müntefering held a joint press conference in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Without being asked, he said that his party and the Union were being measured against what they had promised during the election campaigns. Then he added: Das ist unfair. (That is unfair.) He named the coalition agreement as the right measure: Das ist die Messlatte, was wir leisten können. (That is the bar for what we can achieve.) In 2009 he was still being quoted as having said Es ist unfair, an den Wahlkampfversprechen gemessen zu werden (It is unfair to be measured against campaign promises). That is not his exact wording.
Brandt Resigns
In 1974, Günter Guillaume, one of Chancellor Willy Brandt’s closest aides, was exposed as a spy for East Germany. He had stayed close to the chancellor for more than a year while he was already under suspicion. On 5 May 1974, Brandt told the leaders of his party that he would resign. With his resignation he took responsibility for negligence inside the federal government.
Seiters Resigns
On 27 June 1993, a police operation at the railway station of Bad Kleinen went wrong. A GSG 9 officer and a terrorist of the Red Army Faction died. Federal Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters took political responsibility and resigned on 4 July 1993.
The Car Toll
Under Andreas Scheuer, the Federal Transport Ministry awarded the contracts for a German car toll in October and December 2018. On 18 June 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that the toll broke EU law. After a settlement with the operator, the failed toll cost taxpayers 243 million euros. In December 2023, an expert opinion found that a damages claim against Scheuer had only small chances of success, and the ministry did not sue. In the same decision the ministry called his political responsibility undisputed.
“This Mistake Is Mine Alone”
On 24 March 2021 Chancellor Angela Merkel withdrew the Osterruhe, an Easter lockdown with extra days of rest. The federal and state governments had agreed on it during the night to Tuesday, a day earlier. Merkel said the idea had been a mistake. Then she said: Dieser Fehler ist einzig und allein mein Fehler. This mistake is mine alone. She asked all citizens for forgiveness, and she added: Denn am Ende trage ich für alles die letzte Verantwortung. In the end, I bear the final responsibility for everything.
“We Will Have to Forgive Each Other a Great Deal”
On 22 April 2020, early in the Covid pandemic, Health Minister Jens Spahn spoke in the Bundestag during government question time. He asked for understanding for hard decisions made under uncertainty. He said: dass wir miteinander wahrscheinlich viel werden verzeihen müssen in ein paar Monaten, that in a few months we will probably have to forgive each other a great deal. Years later, the sentence was still quoted in the dispute over his purchases of face masks.
Ballot initiatives
In roughly half the states, citizens who gather enough signatures can put a law directly on the ballot, bypassing the legislature entirely. California has used this to write tax law, criminal sentencing and labour regulation. The power to legislate does not stop with the people elected to legislate.
Political appointees
Each incoming US administration replaces several thousand positions across the federal government, down into the working levels of departments and agencies. Other democracies change the government and keep the officials. The American system rebuilds a substantial part of the executive with every election.