Wolfgang Schäuble - 6

The trip with Dr. Schäuble to Washington, DC and to Chicago, as far as I could tell, was a success. On the flight back to Germany, in discussion with Dolph, I said to him in the form of a question: "So, did I pass the test?" He twitched. Surprised.

I had made clear to him a few weeks earlier that I was interested in working for the CDU in the Bundestag. And that folks needed to make a decision. Yes or no. I had sensed that this trip was, indeed, a bit of a test. Perhaps Dr. Schäuble had already decided that he wanted to bring me. Before Christmas we met in his office. For our routine conversation. He asked me if I wanted to join. He would place me in Dolph's organization, the Büro für Auswärtige Beziehungen. I responded with yes.

A final note, for this post. During that November visit to Washington, Dr. Schäuble met with President Clinton. Early that day his assistant, Johannes, told me that unfortunately I would not be able to accompany Schäuble to that meeting. I was shocked. Not because I would not attend. Instead that my presence would have even been a consideration.

Years later I thought: "Wait, John, back when you first met Dolph, in 1994, making the pitch to why and how you could make a valuable contribution to the relations between Germany and the U.S., you did some serious name-dropping.

Beginning with former classmates at Georgetown. Mark Salter, righthand man to Senator John McCain. Mike Donilon, chief pollster to leading Democrats, including then Senator Joe Biden. Mike's older brother, Tom, was Warren Christopher's Chief of Staff, Clinton's Secretary of State.

Mike Donilon is one of President Joe Biden's closest advisors. In fact, he and another close advisor were just recently sent by the president to run his 2024 reelection campaign from headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. Tom Donilon went on to become Barak Obama's National Security Advisor.

Then there is Dan Porterfield. Two years behind me at Georgetown. Dan was a Rhodes Scholar. During his year at Oxford he befriended George Stefanopolous, another Rhodes Scholar, who would go on to become a star staffer for the Democats in the House, then a key person in the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign.

President Clinton then made Stefanopolous a senior policy advisor. Dan became Chief of Staff to Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton-administration. He then went on to get his Ph.D in English Literature and to teach at Georgetown, after which Dan became president of Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. Last year he was named head of the Aspen Institute.

See Wolfgang Schäuble - 5

My name-dropping to Dolph also included my Uncle Otto. During his three years as a young Jesuit teaching at Georgetown he became close to a student from Arkansas. Tall, handsome, gregarious, friendly, persuasive, intelligent. Bill Clinton.

They, my uncle and the later president, became close friends. Only eight years age difference. They stayed in close touch over the years. With my uncle writing him thoughtful, heart-felt letters encouraging Clinton during difficult times.

I am sure that my name-dropping to Dolph was plump, as the Germans would say. Not terribly finesseful. I had had no practice. It wasn't until I became interested in getting in on the inside of German politics that it occurred to me that I had all of these contacts. And that I was capable of making many more if given the opportunity.

For some strange reason I was not putting two and two together back then. In 1994. In 1995. Wolfgang Schäuble was clearly the second most influential political leader in Germany. Behind Helmut Kohl. Schäuble most certainly had his eyes on the chancellorship. More on this in a later post.

Relations to the U.S. were at the top of the list. And there I was. Spoke German. Well-versed in German history. Analytical skills. Political instincts. Willing. Available. Affordable. And then all of these contacts, which Dolph had surely communicated to Dr. Schäuble before introducing me to him.

November 1995. In Washington, DC. Wolfgang Schäuble must have thought that I had expected to accompany him during his visit with the President Clinton. Nothing could have been further from my mind. I was hoping to get a staffer position somewhere, anywhere with the CDU in the Bundestag. I simply wanted to go deeper into all things German.

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John Otto Magee helps Germans and Americans to better understand each other. So that their collaboration succeeds. See UC at www.understand-culture.com