“In this country, objections are met by saying: the person raising the objection has a red beard and a constipated mother-in-law. Instead of fighting the social democrat Rudolf Breitscheid as an intellectual type, the argument is: ‘And then Breitscheid had a gold filling made in 1897, but only paid for amalgam.'”
These sentences, dripping with sarcasm, were written by the writer Kurt Tucholsky a long time ago. Anyone who takes note of a ruling by the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court this week will find that Germans have not changed much since Tucholsky’s days.
As a reminder: In May 2022, the Bundestag decided to deprive Gerhard Schröder of his Berlin office and its staff, although it is tradition for former chancellors to receive this equipment. Schröder was deprived of the apparatus because he allegedly did not fulfill any obligations related to his previous activities.
The reasoning was dishonest: the Bundestag stripped Schröder of his privileges because the parties were annoyed by his closeness to Putin and outraged that he was a lobbyist for the Russian gas industry. The anger is justified. But what does that have to do with the usual equipment of a former head of government?
Since this supposedly tolerant society does not want to openly admit that it is punishing the wrong attitude, it hypocritically gives unconvincing reasons and looks for gold fillings and amalgam fillings in the spirit of Tucholsky. This is petty, shows political helplessness and gives the impression that it is all about revenge.