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Henrico, Germany's best known jobless man

Henrico Frank, 37 and jobless, is seen after visiting a hair dresser prior to a press conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

One day, Henrico Frank was unemployed and unknown. After a haircut and shave he became undoubtedly Germany's best-known jobless man.

Now, Frank may even have landed himself a steady job, thanks to an unexpected run-in last week with a politician in Wiesbaden.

The beginning

It all began on Tuesday, when Frank was cruising through a Christmas market in Wiesbaden, wearing grubby clothes, a pair of nose rings and a thatch of partially bleached, punk-inspired hair.

The 37-year-old, who has been without work for six years, chanced upon Kurt Beck, the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state and chairman of the Social Democrats -- the center-left half of Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal coalition.

Beck was a perfect, if unwilling, target for Frank's frustration, and he harangued the politician for what he saw as the failure of economic reforms that were aimed at lifting people like himself -- a construction worker -- out of unemployment and into a better life.

Beck's retort: "If you would just wash and shave, you'd find a job too."

Frank figured he'd see if Beck's claim was true.

The change

On Thursday, his locks were lopped off, his dark beard shaved and the nose rings removed. The only vestiges of his earlier appearance were his multiple earrings.

And for good measure, he organized a news conference.

"I am ready to change," Frank told reporters, adding he was fed up with living off handouts from the unemployment office.

"I'll take any job," he said.

Beck noticed, too, and invited Frank to visit his office in Mainz tomorrow, where he plans to present him with several job offers from construction, house painting and cleaning companies.

On Friday, Beck's spokesman Walter Schumacher said that five companies had said they would hire him.

The modern fable has been the talk of the Germany's newspapers and television channels. Newspaper Die Welt splashed before and after photos of Frank on its front page on Friday, and TV stations have covered Frank's big change.

Frank's fortuitous makeover also has prompted serious debate and soul searching about whether German leaders are focusing enough on reining in the country's chronic unemployment.

Last month, unemployment slipped to 9.6 percent, the first time in fours year it was less than 10 percent, but 3.995 million Germans are without work.

The accusation

Beck was accused of elitism and naivete for his comment, which some see as attempt to shift responsibility for the country's jobless rate from the government to the unemployed.

A Greens party member, Thea Dueckert, said that Beck was stigmatizing the jobless.

"With 4 million unemployed, you cannot seriously claim that the people themselves bear guilt for their destiny," she said.
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