Who’s an Expert on Family Values?

At first glance, Katherina Reiche looks like the quintessential spokeswoman for family values: The 28-year-old member of the German parliament has a toddler, and her second child is due in August.

But this rising star of conservative politics, a chemist who grew up in the former East Germany and who joined the Christian Democrats at age 21, has provoked an intense debate about just who is qualified to govern family matters.

At the heart of the discussion is the fact that Reiche, named on Wednesday as opposition chancellor candidate Edmund Stoiber's adviser on youth, women and family matters, is not married. She lives with her partner, a politician in the state of Brandenburg.

"It’s clear to us that we will marry," she said. "But under no circumstances will I allow others to determine the date."

Traditional German values

This came in response to weeks of controversy over the pending appointment, which drew strong criticism from the Catholic church and other proponents of traditional German values known as "Kinder, Küche, Kirche," or "children, cooking, church."

The opposition within Stoiber’s own Christian Social Union (the CDU's Bavarian sister party) was so strong that Stoiber toyed with the idea of removing the responsibility for family politics from the post and asking CSU vice chairman Horst Seehofer, married with three children, to oversee family matters. That would have left Reiche responsible for youth and women.

In deciding to name Reiche to the full post after all, Stoiber said he is confident that she can represent family interests. Stoiber, who has been married since 1968 and has three children, added that while the majority of German familes are married couples with children, other models must be respected.

Families Are Changing

For her part, Reiche said that "traditional (family) concepts have changed."

This appointment signifies a new direction for Reiche, who has been the CDU’s point-person for issues of human genetics and has worked on German-Polish relations. Stoiber had originally turned to Reiche in an attempt to reach out to women and eastern voters – all weak areas for the Bavarian premier.

Besides facing criticism from the conservative wing of his own party, Stoiber was also blasted by the Social Democrats (SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens for the debate itself.

SPD General Secretary Franz Müntefering referred to the discussion as an "embarrassing brouhaha" about Reiche’s personal life.

At least the conservatives’ election team gained a young face, said Claudia Roth, chief of the Greens. But Stoiber, Roth said, "has looked very old in the last few days."

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder seems to gain the most points in the whole debate, which is an interesting turn of events for a man who is on his fourth marriage.