1.
Prepare
"We are ready."
When the
SPD
and Gerhard Schröder campaigned, Instagram was not yet invented.
The party had the three words and a portrait of the candidate printed on posters, on brochures and, very modern, on phone cards.
(For the younger ones: You could pay in phone booths with phone cards. In phone booths you could ... oh, whatever. Check out the iPhone here.)
Icon: enlarge
Ready for two, 1998
Photo: Torsten_Silz / picture-alliance / dpa
"We are ready."
The
Greens
are now using the words to advertise
in Instagram videos by
Annalena Baerbock
and
Robert Habeck
.
At their
online party congress
, the Greens want to present themselves today and over the weekend as a new force for a new era.
The federal election and six state elections are due in 2021, including Baden-Württemberg, where the first and only Green Prime Minister has ruled so far.
Icon: enlarge
Ready for two, 2020
Photo: KAY NIETFELD / AFP
How ready is the party really to follow the pragmatic leadership duo?
A new
basic program
should be created, it must contain enough ideals for peace-moving traditionalists and allow enough pragmatism for future coalitions, ideally in the federal government.
It must not scare off gene skeptics such as homeopaths and should convince "Fridays for Future" activists and climate researchers.
"So far, Habeck and Baerbock's pro-government course has been well received," says my colleague Valerie Höhne.
"Let's see whether they win the controversial votes - these results will be the barometer of opinion."
And how willing are the voters to vote
the party into a future government?
In surveys, they are behind the Union, but ahead of the SPD.
Will a Green or a Green make it to the Chancellery anyway?
After all, Gerhard Schröder and his wife made it to Instagram.
Read Valerie's full analysis here: Ready for anything
And here you can read how the Union, the SPD and the Left are preparing for tough competition: all against the Greens
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)
2.
Corona between Lego and "Candy Crush"
The
corona vaccine from
the Mainz company
Biontech
and the US company Pfizer should actually be available in a few weeks, maybe from mid-December.
Today the companies applied for an emergency license in the USA.
So the drug will probably protect Americans first.
If everything goes well, it can also be used in Europe in the second half of December.
Hundreds of vaccination centers are
to be built in
Germany by the end of the year
, in which up to 20,000 people a day can get the longed-for spades.
The logistics are handled by people like Albrecht Broemme, the former head of the technical relief organization.
In the spring he built an emergency clinic in the Berlin exhibition halls.
Now he is to set up six vaccination centers in the capital.
Broemme built the model for this from Lego, as he showed my colleague Hubert Gude.
(Read more about preparing for mass vaccination here.)
The new SPIEGEL is here, here digitally, from Saturday on the kiosk
Photo:
Cover illustration: SAMSON / DER SPIEGEL
Before that, probably on Wednesday, the Chancellor and Prime Minister will decide how long the
shutdown
should last, whether they can dare to be more lax or have to be more strict.
This round has been the
center of politics against the pandemic in Germany
since March
.
A SPIEGEL team led by my colleagues Christoph Hickmann and Dirk Kurbjuweit has researched how things go there, how the politicians in the circle are behaving.
How someone sometimes plays "Candy Crush" when he's bored.
And how someone else sometimes turns off the sound because he no longer likes to hear it all.
These are insights into the most important chat room in the republic.
"People like to think of politics as a cool, functioning machine, highly professional, trimmed for efficiency, especially in these times," says Christoph.
“And you know that it's not like that because there are people sitting at the table who look to their advantage and just like to be right.” But he was surprised at how much this group
is driven
by
emotions
and
sensitivities
: “How Often one is annoyed and the other offended by how strongly the group dynamics are reminiscent of a school trip. "
Read the full story here: Angela Merkel and the wild 16
3.
The Wireclan
As an attentive SPIEGEL and Lage reader, you know that the name
Wirecard
stands for the biggest economic
scandal of
the past decades.
My colleagues Tim Bartz and Martin Hesse had already followed the miraculous rise of the financial services provider to the German stock index with skepticism.
Now they have researched how far the
circle of conspirators and accomplices
presumably extends.
You came across bizarre details: Many millions of euros disappeared in a mysterious way, a top manager remained as if swallowed by the earth, a business partner of the company died - mercenaries and the goings-on in a Munich villa suddenly play a role.
It also became increasingly clear to Tim and Martin that Jan Marsalek, who had gone into hiding, was at the center of the fraud.
(Read the full story here.)
Icon: enlarge
Insolvency service provider?
Photo: Florian Generotzky, Leopold Fiala / Manager Magazin
Three years ago, a
member of the supervisory board
noticed
that something was wrong at Wirecard.
At the time, she wrote a fire letter that has only now been made public.
"She is the belated heroine of the scandal - and at the same time a tragic figure," comments Tim.
Obviously she did not have the courage or the opportunity to make the grievances transparent at the time.
"Your fate shows what is going wrong in the German executive suite."
Read the full comment here: The belated heroine of the Wirecard scandal
What else is important today
Another fine for the AfD - this time over 72,000 euros:
Only yesterday, the AfD received sanction notices of 500,000 euros for illegal party financing.
Now comes the next fine.
According to SPIEGEL information, it is about a dubious supporter club.
"Attack on the free mandate":
On Wednesday AfD guests in the Bundestag had harassed and insulted MPs.
Parliament is now dealing with the incidents.
Representatives of the other parties are sharply attacking the right-wing populists.
Desperation in Tigray:
In northern Ethiopia, the fighting is intensifying, experts are warning of a disintegration of the vast country.
The civilian population is suffering more and more from the war.
And nobody is allowed to help people.
Udo Walz died:
He coiffed Angela Merkel and numerous other celebrities.
The star hairdresser died at the age of 76.
This was announced by his husband.
My favorite video today: laughing and factual stories
Humor, difficult thing
.
Sound effects in video conferences - silly impertinence or welcome mood enhancer?
How about supposedly funny wallpapers?
I ask for someone whose understanding of humor is perhaps not only shaped by Tucholsky and Loriot, but can also contain traces of Hallervorden.
There should be broad agreement on the thesis that it is not difficult
to laugh at
Micky Beisenherz
.
Friends and enemies would say that about the gag author.
He is the man behind the feuilleton-celebrated jungle camp moderation and responsible for gags at Atze Schröder and Rüdiger Hoffmann.
Beisenherz also presents various TV programs and podcasts.
There is widespread disagreement over the question of how funny the federal government's Corona commercials are "special heroes".
My colleague Jonas Leppin
spoke
about it with Beisenherz in our
video talk »DER SPIEGEL asks«
- and Beisenherz answered.
"It was also about Cancel Culture and Dieter Nuhr," says Jonas.
Not uninteresting, after all, Beisenherz once wrote gags for Nuhr.
You can see the whole video here: "The British celebrate the Germans for their humor - absurd"
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
Icon: enlargePhoto: STEFFEN JAENICKE / Steffen Jänicke - exclusive u.
one-time right of first printing + in accordance with the agreement / framework agreement
She wasn't white enough for Schwanensee:
Chloé Lopes Gomes was the first black ballerina of the Berlin State Ballet.
She'll stop next year.
Now she has nothing more to lose and makes public what she has been silent about for a long time.
This is how Europe is fighting Hungary and Poland:
With their resistance to the EU budget, Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński are plunging the Union into a crisis and putting Angela Merkel under pressure.
Are the blockers excluded from the corona aid?
What negative interest rates mean for savers:
Many banks now demand money from their customers if they bunker too much credit in their account.
How can we prevent this?
Which is not so important today
"The Crown", maybe season 11
: The British
Queen Elizabeth II, 94
, and her husband
Prince Philip, 99
, had a photo of themselves published on Instagram on their 73rd wedding anniversary to show how much they are a greeting card that their great-grandchildren George, 7, and Louis, 2, and their great-granddaughter Charlotte, 5, made.
Typo of the day
, corrected in the meantime: "If you go from one sedition to the next at the age of 92, you will probably be brisk enough to take responsibility for it."
Cartoon of the day:
Threat ...
Icon: enlarge Photo: Klaus Stuttmann
And on the weekend?
Icon: enlarge Photo: Ulrika Malm / Ulrika Malm / Netflix
If you are through "The Crown" and "Babylon Berlin" and all the other good series, you could start a new one, namely the Swedish eight-part series
"Liebe und Anarchy"
.
"It's about the media industry of the present, poetry and sexual obsessions," writes my colleague Wolfgang Höbel.
The heroine is an ambitious management consultant, who is supposed to modernize a traditional publishing house at lightning speed and make it ready for takeover by a worldwide streaming company.
"Not bad as a culture-critical linchpin for a Netflix series," says Wolfgang.
"By the way, 'Love and Anarchy' is a lesson on capitalism in which - that's original - the villain roles are not fixed." (Read the full review here. The series is on Netflix.)
Have a nice weekend, Sincerely
yours Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.