Berlin - Germany's government skipped making any decision Wednesday on whether to appoint a controversial refugee leader, Erika Steinbach, 66, to the board of a planned Berlin museum. Poland objects fiercely to Steinbach, who is a legislator with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), joining the board of the memorial to the expulsions of millions of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe after the Second World War.
Guido Westerwelle, foreign minister and leader of the Free Democrat Party, has threatened to veto any bid to put Steinbach on the board of the federally funded museum because this would strain relations with Warsaw.
He and Merkel said the issue was not discussed at a cabinet meeting Wednesday.
After coaxing from Berlin, Poland had endorsed the museum project, provided that Steinbach, who originally suggested it, is not involved. Poles fear it may sully the memory of their war dead or even incriminate the nations that pushed the Germans out.
As tension grew this week, Steinbach's organization, the Federation of Expellees, shied away from plans, delayed since March, to nominate her as one of the group's three delegates to the 13- member management board.
With Westerwelle alongside, Merkel said it had been CDU election policy to let the federation nominate its own representatives. But since the expellees had not nominated a person to the one vacancy, the cabinet meeting near Berlin had not discussed the topic.
The refugee group had publicly appealed to Merkel before the cabinet meeting to take the initiative so the nomination could proceed. The rest of the board was appointed in April.
The museum is expected to depict how 14 million ethnic Germans were driven out of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and other nations in the final stages of the war and its aftermath, with 2 million dying. Refugee treks and poverty in Germany added to the ordeal.
