Move over, Ellen and Portia. Germany has just gotten their own lesbian sweethearts: top TV talk show host Anne Will and University of St. Gallen Professor Miriam Meckel. Beauty and brains never rang as true as with these two lovely ladies - both extremely successful in their careers, intelligent, respected, and undeniably gorgeous to boot.

Although their relationship has been widely speculated about, especially within the lesbian community in Germany, it still took most by surprise. The news landed on the front page of Bild-Zeitung, a German tabloid, as well as other publications. Anne and Miriam never really made any attempts to hide their 5-year affair, but declined to comment on it in public. On an occasion at the Jewish Museum in Berlin this weekend, they finally came out. “Yes we are a couple,” said Will, “but we would like to keep our private life private.” Quite appropriately, this revelation was made under the museum’s slogan which says, “Tolerance and Understanding.”

A survey conducted right after her admission reveals that more Germans respect Anne Will after coming out. Of the 500 respondents, 16% said they like her better than before, while 64% said their perception of her has not changed at all. Only 8% of those polled said they liked her less. Anne Will was the former host of Germany’s most important news program Tagesthemen. She now has her own top ranking political talk show after her name. Miriam Meckel, on the other hand, is a member of network Deutsche Welle’s broadcasting board, and former state secretary for media and government spokeswoman for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Prior to Anne and Miriam’s public admission, the handful of out lesbians in Germany have mostly been actresses and TV personalities, including Hella von Sinnen, Cornelia Scheel, Miriam Müntefering, Ulrike Folkerts, Maren Kroymann, Lucy Diakovska, Vera Int-Veen, and Bettina Böttinger. In politics, some of the out and proud women are Karin Wolff, Lissy Gröner, and Sybill Klotz. The addition of a very high-profile couple like Anne and Miriam to the list certainly gives lesbians all around Germany reason to gather up and drink beer. For younger girls, in Germany and around the world, they now have two more positive role models to be proud of. Cheers!