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The Schröder couple on Instagram: Palliative nowhere

2020-10-23T18:55:21.059Z


The folk Schröder who consumes himself after a bottle of beer is blown away: on his wife's Instagram channel, the ex-Chancellor appears domesticated between autumn decorations and felt slippers. What does that tell us?


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Gerhard Schröder and Soyeon Schröder-Kim: accidental and incoherent

Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

If you want to do something good for yourself or give yourself a little pleasure, you should take a look at Instagram.

The Korean word for "little joy in a day" is "Hasosul", describing the modest "joys of everyday life" and may also be understood as a "hygge" variant of "carpe diem".

The term is enthroned as a hashtag (#Hasosul) above the Instagram appearance of Soyeon Schröder-Kim, 52, the fifth wife of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, 76. With a heart.

What does that mean?

The heart is important because it is the digital documentation of a love.

As with Wendler and Wendlerin, Germany's second most relevant Instagram lovers with the second largest age difference between those involved (and currently probably some problems, but that doesn't belong here).

It's just that Schröder-Kim and Schröder are a little more autumnal, more modest.

And more political.

It is true that the private is considered political, and on Instagram this political is publicly exhibited as an intimate foreign policy, so to speak.

As if through a virtual keyhole, you can only see what should be seen.

Politically, the retired Chancellor is under pressure because of his close ties to the Kremlin, both on business and as friends.

You can see it on Instagram: nothing.

That’s why there’s Gerhard Schröder in all lifetimes.

When hanging a picture with a hammer in hand.

When showing a bouquet of wild flowers.

Sitting around in parliaments or standing around with important people.

While stirring fried potatoes in the pan on the induction stove, he is wearing a blue quilted vest over his supposedly naked torso.

While harvesting the tomatoes on the roof garden, the old chancellor's feet are in gray felt slippers with cute sheep embroidered on them to protect them from the weather in Lower Saxony.

The films are the real highlight.

We see Gerhard Schröder quoting Rilke sonorously at the evening table ("If you don't have a house now, you won't build one anymore ..."), while the camera glides lovingly over autumnal arrangements until we sit the reciting host in front of a plate of potato soup see.

We see Gerhard Schröder describing the advantages and pitfalls of rose hips to his wife ("I just want to tell you, these are rose hips ..."), as if the plant - like his wife - did not originally come from Korea.

But do we want to see that?

Does Gerhard Schröder want us to see that?

It's not his appearance, but that of Soyeon Schröder-Kim.

We see them making mouth and nose masks and tailoring traditional costumes.

We see them sign their own autograph cards and at video conferences.

We see the interpreting business manager at receptions, on the plane, in front of a VW Beetle and as a conversation partner for the "Seoul Economic Daily".

We see her in a yellow quilted vest over the vegetable pan (with soy sauce).

"In this production, the former chancellor plays the role of a particularly elegant piece of furniture as a serene actor"

A woman from the world between worlds.

Without their influence, Schröder would hardly have ordered a miniature of the controversial "comfort women" sculpture for the anteroom of his office.

What she writes, she also writes in Korean, so it also broadcasts for distant homeland.

Where Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt, with whom Schröder-Kim posts a brisk selfie, should again be rather unknown.

In this production, the former chancellor plays the role of a particularly elegant piece of furniture as a serene actor.

You can put it here or there and let it unfold its cozy effect.

Like a desk on which historical documents were once signed.

He is, as his wife affectionately calls him, her "Yopsigi" (Korean for: "People with me").

It seems as if the old dude has now even finally outsourced his vanity: "Do it, Soyeon!".

The folk Schröder who consumes himself after a bottle of beer or bratwurst is gone.

It is a domesticated roast potato and slipper shredder.

Randomly and incoherently, Schröder-Kim also advertises the "Kultursensible Altenhilfe HeRo eV", which would like to connect "generations and cultures".

The couple lives alternately in Hanover and Seoul, but ideally it is laid out tenderly on Instagram as a west-east divan.

"Orient and Occident can no longer be separated," as the poet writes.

Her everyday life is also a palliative nowhere in terms of style and iconography.

White walls, light brown parquet, lots of seasonal botany, a touch of vanitas and greatness of the past.

Limbo and heaven in the here and now and so lifeless, as if Stanley Kubrick had had a hand as an interior designer.

There is also something comforting about it

Of course, this under-floor heating insignificance is also of a strategic nature.

Other board chairmen of Russian energy giants probably live differently.

All the chancellors, from Adenauer to Schröder, hang one after the other in his office.

After Schröder, the area is free, there is nothing left - except for a big stab from the ancient chancellor and founding father Bismarck.

With pimple hood.

One might think that a Federal Chancellor would take the office with him into retirement.

Not only is he not embarrassed to be demonstrated his importance in this way in the flavored cooling pool.

It is probably okay with him.

No world-, a rose hip explainer.

And so the bizarre account in this strange autumn also has something comforting about it, as if it were a final message from the great social democrat to his people.

Who doesn't have a house now!

Wrap yourself in quilted vests!

Make itching powder out of rose hips!

And don't be ashamed.

Hasosul!

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

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