Guido Westerwelle: The FDP's Man Behind the Wheel

For the Free Democrat Party (FDP), Germany's pro-business, free market oriented party, the Guildomobile is something more than a cult object – it's a vision of party chairman Westerwelle's goal to be politically mobile enough with his party to score 18 percent of the votes on Sept. 22. As the FDP's first-ever chancellor candidate, Westerwelle is now traveling through Germany, from campground to campground, for the next six weeks in an effort to turn out voters for his party.

But with the FDP hovering around nine percent in public opinion polls, the 41-year old attorney has his work cut out for him.

A picture book political career

Raised the son of a lawyer and single father, Westerwelle was born on Dec. 27, 1961, in the city of Bad Honnef located on the Rhine River. Westerwelle followed his father's career path in the world of law. Right after finishing high school, Westerwelle joined the FDP in 1980 and rose quickly to become the head of the party's youth organization. In 1994, after completing his Juris Doctor in law at the University of Bonn, he became his party's general-secretary.

With an ambitious political agenda and support for controversial issues like Germany's citizenship law reform in 1999 -- which enabled children of foreigners living in Germany to keep two passports until the age of 23 -- and new technology investment and tax cuts, he sought to position the FDP as an independent and progressive one.

And with his concept of creating a "constructive opposition," Westerwelle distanced his party from the conservative Christian Democratic Union in 1998. Meanwhile, he doggedly pursued his ambition to become the party's chairman. When he successfully pressured party chairman Wolfgang Gerhardt to resign in May 2001, the influential "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" declared it the "master stroke" of Westerwelle's career. It also landed him in the position he had sought. One year later, he scored an even bigger coup when his party moved – with only two votes against him – to make Westerwelle its first-ever chancellor candidate.

Outside of politics, Westerwelle leads an intensely private life in Berlin, revealing few details other than his hobbies, like collecting art, and his love for all things Italian.

'Big Brother' and beach volleyball

Far more is known about Westerwelle's public persona. A regular guest on Germany's most popular television talk shows, Westerwelle has consciously tried to create a public image of himself as a youthful political reformer. Media savvy as he is, sometimes his pranks have angered rather than entertained people. He was heavily criticized for his appearance in the container of the controversial but wildly popular television show "Big Brother." Nevertheless, Westerwelle filled the pages of the country's colorful tabloid newspapers for days after his appearance, raising his public profile to an even greater level.

He's hoping to fill those pages again this summer as he hits the road with the Guidomobile as Germany's youngest ever chancellor candidate at age 40.