Guido Westerwelle was a German politician who served as the 10th Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and was the 15th Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He was the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions. He had been the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) since May 2001, but stepped down in 2011. A lawyer by profession, he was member of the Bundestag from 1996 to 2013.