Ole von Beust
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Carl-Friedrich Arp Freiherr von Beust, generally called Ole von Beust, born April 13 1955 in Hamburg, Germany, Mayor of the city-state ("Bundesland") of Hamburg since 2001.
In 1971 von Beust became member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In 1973, after finishing high school, he became deputy of the CDU faction of Hamburg's city-state parliament ("Bürgerschaft"), a position he held until he started to study law in 1975. From 1977 until 1983 he was Hamburg president of the youth organisation of his party. Since 1978 Beust has been a member of the Hamburg city-state's parliament. In 1983 he successfully completed his studies and became an independent lawyer.
He has been a member of the ruling council of the Hamburg Land CDU since 1992, and of the national ruling council of the CDU party since 1998
October 31, 2001 Ole von Beust became Mayor ("Erster Bürgermeister") of the Land Hamburg. This position is about the same as a state governor in the US.
In August 2003 there was a scandal in Hamburg when Beust dismissed his vice-mayor Ronald Schill. Beust later declared the dismissal was necessary, because Schill tried to blackmail him by threatening to make Beust's homosexuality public. In a later interview, Beust's father said that his son is homosexual. Beust himself considers his sexual orientation a private matter.
The Hamburg elections of February 29, 2004, ended with an unprecedented landslide victory for Ole von Beust and the CDU, with the party achieving absolute majority in the city-state's parliament. The CDU gained 47.2 percent of the vote, a full 21-point increase from the previous election in September 2001. This was the first time the city-state has had only a single ruling party.
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