Klaus Wowereit - Personal Life

Personal Life

Wowereit is youngest to two brothers and two sisters and grew up without a father. One of his brothers supported his studies and later he took care of his brother, who was paralyzed after an accident, as well as his mother, who was suffering from cancer.

Wowereit is one of the most famous German politicians who is openly gay. In coming out, prior to the 2001 mayoral elections, he coined the now famous German phrase "Ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so." ("I'm gay, and that is absolutely fine.") In his autobiography, Wowereit states that his decision to come out in public was made because after his nomination as candidate to become the Mayor of Berlin, he felt that the German tabloids were already "on the right track". With his coming out, Wowereit wanted to beat the tabloids to it and prevent them from writing wild, sensational and fabricated stories about his private life. Wowereit said those now famous words during a convention of the Berlin SPD. After the end of his speech, there was half a second of surprised silence, then spontaneous cheering and loud applause to support him.

His election as mayor made Berlin one of three major European cities with an openly gay mayor, along with Paris, whose mayor is Bertrand Delanoë, and Hamburg, whose mayor was Ole von Beust at that time, who both also took office in 2001. However, von Beust resigned in 2010, making Wowereit the only gay mayor of a major German city. Previously, the largest city with a gay mayor had been Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with mayor Glen Murray. Berlin being the largest and Hamburg being the 2nd largest city in Germany, they are also German states in their own right, having made both Wowereit and von Beust also state premiers.

In September 2007, Wowereit published an autobiographical book titled "…und das ist auch gut so.", after his famous coming-out phrase (ISBN 3896673343).

Wowereit's civil partner, Jörn Kubicki, is a neurosurgeon. They have been in a relationship since 1993.