Former Top-politician Wolfgang Bosbach: One of the last upright people

“Humor is the best medicine,” says Wolfgang Bosbach, a native of the Rhineland with a cheerful nature, an amateur soccer player and a full-blooded politician for 48 years. “Humor is a driving force, although it is becoming more difficult with humor in Berlin,” says the 69-year-old Bosbach. Many would confuse humor with superficiality, he explains. “If you wish people a cheerful good morning in the German Bundestag in Berlin, you already make yourself suspicious…. For many politicians, bad humor may even be considered proof of special respectability – you worry about the world from morning to night and show it with your body language.”

Wolfgang Bosbach laughs heartily and with pleasure; he says he was not only born in the Rhineland, but is also a Rhinelander by conviction. People from this area around Cologne in Germany have the image to be happy by nature, carnival is there thing. Yet the politician and top speaker is one of those for whom life has not just been easy. In 2010, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. But instead of cowering in self-pity, he was one of the first to speak openly about his illness. He continued to pursue politics.

In his party, the CDU, Wolfgang Bosbach has always been seen as someone who makes trouble.

This earned him the reputation of being the “cow that always stands crosswise in the barn. Because he no longer liked this role, he drew the consequences and did not run in the last Bundestag election. At the same time, his reputation within the party made him a popular figure with voters. They trusted him because they knew that he would deliver what he promised. In the popularity ranking of politicians, Wolfgang Bosbach was as popular as only chancellors and ministers. He speaks plainly, he is one of the “last upright people”.

Wolfgang Bosbach is the one you see on television and hear in interviews. He does not play a role, but keeps to himself. In his lecture “Encounters. Experiences. Experiences. How politics should be and actually is” he says:

“I have gained two insights in my life that may sound banal, but from my point of view are the most important. First is to be and stay authentic, and second is to stick to your convictions, even when there’s trouble.”

He said he has often had people approach him and say that while they don’t share his political opinions, they think it’s good that he stands by his convictions.

In an interview at the German radio station SWR1 Leute, one reads comments such as: “You are not one of the good ones, no, you are one of the very good ones. Great person and politician”, or “Very likeable person. It’s a pity that I didn’t notice him during their time in office. We should have more politicians who see themselves as human beings and, above all, act in the interests of the people. I wish you all the best Mr. Bosbach.”

Wolfgang Bosbach has moved from the political to the speaker stage. He is considered one of the top speakers in the German scene and shares in his speeches how he sees Germany’s future in Europe as well as politics and economics, the politics of the future, about the predicament Europe is in between the US and China, or the challenges for Germany in domestic and security policy. He speaks in German.