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News in English: Germans welcome their new president

Today Germany's new president Joachim Gauck (pronounced “Yo-ah-im Gaok”) inaugurates.  He was a Lutheran pastor and a civil rights leader in East Germany.

After the unification of Germany, he was elected by the Bundestag (the German parliament) to be the 1^st Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives (1999-2000) that preserves and protects the former E. German secret police archives and investigate past crimes of the secret police Stasi.

He has been politically independent (is not a member of any political party), and stays active in 2 organizations:

1.  Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie ("Against Forgetting – For Democracy")

2.  European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia

The Germans have a tradition of electing social leaders into the presidency, and Gauck has been well respected across Germany:

Der Spiegel, a magazine for the intellectuals, called him “the better President” when he lost the election in 2010.  At the same time, das Bild, a popular gossip newspaper, calls him “the president of hearts.”  Chancellor Angela Merkel praises him “a true teacher of democracy… tireless advocate of freedom, democracy and justice.”

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