Ole von Beust

In 1973 von Beust first entered the Hamburg State Legislature (the "Bürgerschaft") as a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He left in 1975 to start studying law. On 31 October 2001 he became Prime Minister of the State of Hamburg, although the City-State calls the post First Mayor (Erster Bürgermeister). In August 2003 there was a scandal in Hamburg when Beust dismissed his deputy 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 29 February, 2004, ended with an unprecedented landslide victory for Ole von Beust and the CDU, with the party achieving absolute majority in the Bürgerschaft. 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 has not been governed by a coalition.