NUNSPEET—“Germany has chosen the turning point: the cdu (Christian Democrats) and fdp (Free Democrats) will govern. … The winner of this election is Guido Westerwelle (fdp leader). Angela Merkel’s winning smile is deceptive. The cdu lost votes. She is only there due to the parlous state of the spd and its weak competitors” (Neue Ruhr Zeitung/Neue Rhein Zeitung, September 27; translation ours).

Watching the German news convey the story of Angela Merkel’s shaky win in Sunday’s federal election in Germany, it soon became apparent that voter turnout was one of the poorest in the nation’s history.

Pundits’ early views are that many in particular who would have normally voted for Vice Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s Social Democratic Party (spd) simply refused to vote due to two primary reasons—Germans prefer an incumbent chancellor in times of disruption such as is currently being experienced via the global financial crisis and, second, the spd candidate, Vice Chancellor Steinmeier, simply did not have the appeal that he needed to convince the electorate that he would be an improvement on Chancellor Merkel.

It’s the warm, plumply matronly, motherly political image that Germans preferred to cuddle up to as they approach a year ahead fraught with the prospect of ongoing financial, industrial and economic disruption.

Nevertheless, it has to be noted that Merkel’s Christian Democrats gave their second-poorest performance in the postwar history of the party in this election. It was the liberals who in fact increased their vote, offsetting the right-wing swing in a whole battery of state elections that preceded Sunday’s vote.

The result on early analysis appears to give Chancellor Merkel the opportunity to form a governing coalition with the Free Democratic Party (fdp). This will present an interesting challenge for the chancellor. It is thought that the fdp leader, Guido Westerwelle, will be given the foreign minister’s portfolio, in addition to assuming the vice chancellorship. The challenge will come if his performance in that office is not matched by that of the rising star in German politics, Merkel’s economics minister, Baron zu Guttenberg.

Zu Guttenberg has recently passed Chancellor Merkel in favor as the most popular politician in Germany, far ahead of Westerwelle.

Hailing from the entrenched Bavarian-Frankish, Catholic aristocracy, the young zu Guttenberg is the very antithesis of the liberal, homosexual Westerwelle. He is also the foreign-policy expert within his party, the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (csu), having taken a lead in foreign-policy debate in the German parliament.

Zu Guttenberg was a bright young leader of the young set in Bavarian politics during the long reign of Edmund Stoiber as Bavaria’s prime minister. The two carry a mutual respect for each other’s political achievements. Recently zu Guttenberg strongly endorsed Stoiber’s efforts to cut European Union red tape to the tune of prospective multiple billions of euros in savings.

This young aristocratic Frank is of particular interest to the Trumpet due to his family and political connections. His early development in political life was guided by Edmund Stoiber. He was appointed secretary general of the Bavarian Christian Social Union, Stoiber’s political party, when Stoiber was considered a prime candidate for the German chancellorship before he was just pipped at the post by Angela Merkel. Stoiber’s political mentor was the Bavarian prime minister whom he succeeded, Franz Josef Strauss, known in his time as “the strong man of Europe.”

Zu Guttenberg is also connected through part of the family line to the house of Habsburg. Strauss and Otto von Habsburg shared a common dream of a united Catholic Europe. Both personally shared details of that vision with Herbert Armstrong during visits they made to the campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. To Otto von Habsburg, the dream was of a revived Holy Roman Empire. To Herbert Armstrong, that dream would become the very reality of the biblically prophesied seventh resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

Herbert Armstrong foresaw, and prophesied, that the European Union would fulfill that prophecy under German Roman Catholic dominion.

If, as German pundits are already claiming, the old guard in German politics is on the way out, and a new guard on the rise, then it is likely to be those of the caliber of zu Guttenberg who fill the old guard’s shoes.

Take zu Guttenberg’s impeccable Frankish-Bavarian Roman Catholic connections into mind and add them to the thread of political thought that has pervaded Bavarian politics for decades under Strauss and Stoiber—the dream of a united Catholic Europe under German leadership. Then add to it something that neither Strauss nor Stoiber ever possessed—a striking family title that cements all of these connections together—and we may well have a man to watch in the coalition that emerges when Chancellor Merkel makes her choices for her future coalition cabinet.

What is that family title?

The current Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s official title was granted to his forebears during the 18th century. His correct title is Reichsfreiherr, the English translation being, “Baron of the Holy Roman Empire.”

If the Steinmeiers and Münteferings of the world are on the political skids, watch for the young bloods of the style of this up-and-coming Reichsfreiherr to seize the political initiative and begin to shake up German politics. They have a powerful ally in the papacy!