Christian Wulff - German President under criticism over House Loan

Christian Wulff, German President is under severe pressure to provide a complete detail of his conduct over a contentious home loan he picked up.

A well known daily Bild said Mr. Wulff, a supporter of Chancellor Angela Merkel, intimidated it with lawful action if it published facts of the loan.

Mr. Wulff came under a bombardment of condemnation in German newspaper editorials on Tuesday over the issue.

He has rejected confusing state deputies over the home loan.

Mr. Wulff, a centre-right Christian Democrat, was selected in June 2010 to the greatest ceremonial post of German president.

It has appeared that he got a home loan of 500,000 euros (£417,000; $649,000) from the wife of a prosperous businessman in October 2008, while prime minister of Lower Saxony state.

Bild says that last month, just before it revealed details of the loan, Mr. Wulff rang its chief editor Kai Diekmann and left a voicemail message intimidating the newspaper with permissible action and conveying anger about its plans to publish the story.

According to Bild, Mr. Wulff, who was on a visit to Gulf states at the time, rang Mr. Diekmann again two days later and regretted over the tone and features of his voice message.

Mr. Wulff’s spokesman quoted by German ARD TV on Tuesday, said the president considered media freedom as "a costly commodity". She said Mr. Wulff would not mention on personal phone calls.

Bild says Mr. Wulff had also called Mathias Doepfner, president of Bild's publishing house Axel Springer AG, and had recommended him to put pressure on Bild to hold back the article. But Mr. Doepfner had refused to do so.

The entrepreneur whose wife made the loan to Mr. Wulff was businessman Egon Geerkens.

An interest rate of 4% was decided- 1% point lower than the customary bank rate, Bild said.

In February 2010, at around the time he faced queries over his agreements to the Geerkens, Mr. Wulff returned the private loan with a bank mortgage.

On 22 December he issued a request for forgiveness, stating he should have unveiled the private loan before taking office as president.

An editorial in Financial Times Deutschland identified for his resignation on Tuesday, saying he had not succeed to implement properly for the office of president.

"Everything taken together, it's gradually becoming over... his integrity has been ruined by this surfeit of errors. A man who is dragging around such a load can no longer remain president," it said.

The significant daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung also said he should resign.

"The naivety and shamelessness of Wulff's deeds are stressing. He's not head administrator of Osnabrueck, nor is he prime minister of Lower Saxony any longer - he is chief of state. This post is in fact too big for Wulff," the paper said in an editorial.