Foreign Minister Under Fire: Network of Business Ties Raises Doubts About Westerwelle

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The effervescent Arntz later turned up at Boersch's Mountain Super Angel AG in Switzerland, where he held the title of vice-president. According to the company's Web site, Arntz was "personal assistant to FDP Chairman Dr. Guido Westerwelle until 2007." In that position, he was "entrusted with the development and intensification of corporate and business contacts."

In July 2008, Arntz became the executive director of a Mountain subsidiary, the Berlin-based company Polixea Deutschland GmbH, which runs a political Web site, among other things. A few months later, Arntz assisted the FDP in the 2009 parliamentary election campaign. In an e-mail he sent to acquaintances and business associates on Sept. 4, 2008 (under the subject line: "FDP Internet election campaign -- Are you interested in supporting it?"), he wrote: "Most of you will know that before working at Mountain Partners, I was the assistant of Guido Westerwelle and, furthermore, that Conny isn't just a personal friend of Guido, but has also been one of his closest advisors for years." At the beginning of the week, according to Arntz's e-mail, "Guido Westerwelle visited us here in Zurich, where we had an in-depth discussion of the upcoming 2009 super-election year."

Arntz was appointed to the position at the Foreign Ministry on Oct. 29, 2009. When asked what qualifications he brought to the position, the ministry cited Arntz's former work as an "employee of Dr. Guido Westerwelle," and noted that he had been hired "solely on the basis of the professional qualifications acquired in that position." From then on, Arntz's friend "Conny" apparently had an open invitation to accompany Westerwelle on official trips. A Foreign Ministry spokesman was unwilling to say whether Arntz was or is involved in compiling the lists of members of Westerwelle's delegations.

Hans-Christoph Quelle, the managing director of a company called Secusmart GmbH, was given a seat on Westerwelle's plane during the foreign minister's January trip to the Middle East. Quelle, whose company sells tap-proof mobile phones, has known Arntz for some time. In November 2007, Mountain Super Angel AG acquired a stake in Quelle's company. A short time later, Arntz announced that "the market for tap-proof telephony" was about to be revolutionized. "Secusmart," he added, offers "solutions that people in politics and business need more than ever today."

It was a downright prophetic statement. Shortly after the CDU/FDP election victory, the Düsseldorf-based company was awarded a contract to provide German federal agencies with thousands of mobile phones equipped with its encryption technology. According to Secusmart, the majority of the special phones were delivered in December 2009. According to Quelle, the bidding process and awarding of the contract took place before the September 2009 election, when the former government of CDU and Social Democratics was still in office. Quelle says that he was invited to travel with Westerwelle's entourage on his trip to the Gulf "at the last minute," and that his former business partner Arntz had had "nothing to do with the invitation."

Well-Educated, Young and Ambitious

Boersch's Mountain Partners is a conglomerate of 30 companies, which include both small operations and promising high-tech startups. Mronz also found employment with companies within the Mountain Partners group. He was a member of the supervisory board of Arygon AG, a subsidiary based in the western German city of Mainz, for close to three years. He was also involved in a Web site called Netzathleten (Web Athletes). According to the "Gründerszene" database, Mountain Super Angel holds a 10-percent stake in the company, which was founded in 2007. Mronz was intermittently responsible for PR at Netzathleten.

The Mountain Partners "Young Boys Network" consists of well-educated, smart and ambitious men. They are closely connected to the FDP, as the example of TellSell Consulting demonstrates. Westerwelle was a member of its advisory board until 2009, and its managing director is a man named Frank Baumgärtner, whose office is located in Frankfurt's Westend district. The business expert, whose initial entrepreneurial successes included selling sanitary products in eastern Germany, is seen as one of the mainstays of the FDP Citizens' Fund, a donations-gathering organization within the party. Since 2007, Baumgärtner has co-hosted elaborate donor dinners, at which guests are served expensive food and given the chance to rub shoulders with FDP leaders.

Baumgärtner was one of the hosts of a gala at Berlin's Meilenwerk facility, a Mecca for classic car fans, on April 30, 2008. The FDP billed it as an "evening of superlatives," not just because of the refined atmosphere of glittering chrome and polished burl wood, but also because of the generous donation Baumgärtner's friend Boersch made to the party. On that evening, the entrepreneur announced that he was contributing €75,000 ($102,000) to the FDP.

Baumgärtner has also come to the party's aid as a sponsor. TellSell, the company he runs, has co-financed major FDP events. In March 2007, the Frankfurt-based company was one of the main sponsors of a gala event to mark the 80th birthday of former party leader Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Profitable Partnership

TellSell's commitment is not entirely altruistic. The company also uses the events to pitch itself to potential customers. "We are constantly and consistently expanding our connections to decision-makers in the areas of business, politics, science and the media," it says.

This has apparently paid off. The customers on TellSell's reference list include companies like Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post and the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg. Most of all, TellSell has benefited from the fact that Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz, Baumgärtner's partner in fundraising for the FDP, resigned as the party's organization and PR manager to become state secretary in the FDP-run Economic Cooperation and Development Ministry.

Since then, TellSell has developed a growing interest in development policy. At the beginning of the year, the consulting firm contacted the government-owned development aid company GTZ, which is involved in projects in foreign countries, including China, and receives most of its contracts from the ministry. On Feb. 5, TellSell representatives gave a presentation at GTZ headquarters in Eschborn near Frankfurt, with support from the Foreign Ministry, whose State Secretary Beerfeltz was also in attendance. After the meeting, GTZ officials sounded out internal departments to determine where TellSell's consulting services might be needed. Beerfeltz insists that he did not exert any influence on the initiation of business contacts between TellSell and the GTZ. TellSell's managing director also rejects suspicions of cronyism as "ridiculous."

Although no contracts have been awarded yet, Beerfeltz isn't TellSell's only influential friend. Jürgen Koppelin, deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, is a member of the GTZ supervisory board. In December, he assumed Westerwelle's position as a member of the TellSell advisory board.

Westerwelle Seems Oblivious to Public Opinion

What is most unsettling about all this is that Westerwelle isn't noticing the public impression created by these entanglements, or that he is viewed as a stubborn man who lives according to the motto: I am what I am, and I refuse to allow anyone to tell me what to say or do.

This approach may be appropriate in private life, but anyone who thinks this way as foreign minister fails to recognize the essence of an office of state: It doesn't change to accommodate the incumbent, or it only does so very slowly. In fact, the officeholder is expected to conform to the office, including its rituals and customs. Most of all, he must live up to the high expectations of the office, which Westerwelle has not managed to do.

When he took a stand against some of the accusations last week, Westerwelle revealed his poor understanding of the impact of his words and actions. He said, for example, that he takes Mronz along on trips because his partner is interested in "social" matters. Although the remark was intended to add weight to Mronz's participation, it was so exaggerated that it seemed embarrassing.

During his South America trip, Westerwelle said that the accusations against him and Mronz were linked to their homosexuality, and that the questions probably would not have been asked if things were "different" with him. It was a cheap defense.

Westerwelle has undoubtedly suffered from resentment in the past, but in this case his argument sounded unbelievable. And the explanation of how Westerwelle came up with his travel companions was also somewhat feeble. The Foreign Ministry, Westerwelle claimed, had selected the business delegates to accompany him on his trips abroad from among several dozen business people.

If this was the case, the Foreign Ministry's reasons for placing FDP supporters and political advisors Margarita Mathiopoulos and Christoph Walther on the government plane were as baffling as the fact that, on some trips, about half of the business delegation consisted of representatives who were also part of Westerwelle's circle of friends.

"Defamation Campaign"

Westerwelle's response to charges that his brother Kai was involved in a company called Far Eastern was particularly off the mark. The company's managing director, Ralf Marohn, was also a guest on the government plane to China. Westerwelle characterized the criticism as a "defamation campaign" against his family by the opposition. He insisted that Marohn, an FDP member, was competent when it came to doing business in China, and that he had also traveled with Kurt Beck, the SPD governor of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Beck's office promptly corrected Westerwelle's claim: "It is, in fact, the case that Ralf Marohn has never been a member of the delegation on the governor's trips." The office also noted that the lists of guests on Beck's trips to Asia would serve as ample proof.

In a second communication from the Foreign Ministry, Marohn used his company's letterhead to state his position, writing that he had taken part in Beck's October 1999 trip to China on behalf of the Economics Ministry of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. He attempted to support his claim with a blurred photograph showing Beck standing next to Marohn.

Siegfried Englert, a state secretary in the state's economics ministry, now under SPD control, has shed some light on the controversy. He says that for many years Marohn organized trips to China for small and mid-sized business owners from Rhineland-Palatinate on behalf of the ministry, which was under FDP control at the time. This provided the business managers, most of whom had little international experience, with the opportunity to establish connections in the Far East. The photos in China, says Englert, were taken when Beck was visiting a wine exchange. Marohn was there because he had organized a trip to the wine exchange for a few winegrowers from Rhineland-Palatinate.

Clumsy Crisis Management

The clumsiness of his crisis managers has only exacerbated the poor impression Westerwelle has made with his questionable job performance. If he doesn't gain control of himself and his ministry soon, he is the wrong man for the job.

It was surprisingly quiet in the government last week. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), normally critical of the FDP, kept a low profile. The situation within the coalition was apparently too serious for them to continue playing with fire.

Even in the FDP, criticism of the party chairman was only expressed on the quiet. Some said that Westerwelle had himself to blame for some of the charges. "It wouldn't hurt Westerwelle to be a little more reserved, but he does just the opposite. Does Mr. Mronz have to accompany him everywhere, now of all times?" asks a veteran FDP member. "Westerwelle is too provocative, and then he complains about the consequences."

Westerwelle's domestic partner piped up on Friday, when he announced that would not accompany the foreign minister on his upcoming trip to South Africa. The event planner said that he had other commitments.

Reporting by DINAH DECKSTEIN, CHRISTOPH HICKMANN, RALF NEUKIRCH, SVEN RÖBEL, MERLIND THEILE, ANDREAS WASSERMANN

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• Part 1: Network of Business Ties Raises Doubts About Westerwelle
• Part 2: Web of Business Contacts