German Envoy Attacks Mps for Bad Behaviour on Us Junket
Rolf Schütte writes to foreign ministry in Berlin to express outrage at bundestag MPs
A German diplomat has criticized a group of bundestag MPs over their behavior on a recent visit to San Francisco, accusing them of using a racial slur and of choosing sightseeing and shopping above meetings with US counterparts.
Rolf Schütte, the German consul general in San Francisco, wrote to the foreign ministry in Berlin to express his outrage. His confidential letter, which is furious and frank in tone, has been leaked to the German press and created a public debate about the legitimacy of publicly funded foreign political trips and whether they should be more tightly controlled.
Schütte wrote that the behavior of the bundestag's health committee members during a visit to the US and Canada in May ranged from "inappropriate to bloody-minded". He euphemistically referred to the visit as a "trip of a special nature", which the MPs had requested should leave plenty of room for a combination of "theatre and concert events, and shopping - especially shoe shopping".
The most barbed part of Schütte's attack concerned the request he received to provide Annette Widmann-Mauz, 42, with a wheelchair because she had broken her foot. But the wheelchair provided was deemed unacceptable by the Christian Democrat MP, who described it as "a chair for the sick with small wheels, the kind you see in old US movies".
Concerned that Widmann-Mauz would be unable to take part in a sightseeing tour of San Francisco, her colleague Randolph Krüger, a Social Democrat from Potsdam, allegedly told Schütte: "We need a nigger who can push the wheelchair."
Krüger has not denied he made the remark, telling Spiegel magazine: "I wouldn't exclude having said that, but if they're going to provide us with such a splendid contraption, they can at least help us out with it."
Responding on behalf of the committee, he added that the consulate's service was "not of the standard we're used to ... The people at the consulate appear to be used to getting drunk tourists out of prison, but are unaware of the sort of service they should give to German MPs."
Rolf Schütte, the German consul general in San Francisco, wrote to the foreign ministry in Berlin to express his outrage. His confidential letter, which is furious and frank in tone, has been leaked to the German press and created a public debate about the legitimacy of publicly funded foreign political trips and whether they should be more tightly controlled.
Schütte wrote that the behavior of the bundestag's health committee members during a visit to the US and Canada in May ranged from "inappropriate to bloody-minded". He euphemistically referred to the visit as a "trip of a special nature", which the MPs had requested should leave plenty of room for a combination of "theatre and concert events, and shopping - especially shoe shopping".
The most barbed part of Schütte's attack concerned the request he received to provide Annette Widmann-Mauz, 42, with a wheelchair because she had broken her foot. But the wheelchair provided was deemed unacceptable by the Christian Democrat MP, who described it as "a chair for the sick with small wheels, the kind you see in old US movies".
Concerned that Widmann-Mauz would be unable to take part in a sightseeing tour of San Francisco, her colleague Randolph Krüger, a Social Democrat from Potsdam, allegedly told Schütte: "We need a nigger who can push the wheelchair."
Krüger has not denied he made the remark, telling Spiegel magazine: "I wouldn't exclude having said that, but if they're going to provide us with such a splendid contraption, they can at least help us out with it."
Responding on behalf of the committee, he added that the consulate's service was "not of the standard we're used to ... The people at the consulate appear to be used to getting drunk tourists out of prison, but are unaware of the sort of service they should give to German MPs."
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