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Bettina Gaus as a guest on the Maischberger talk show, September 2019
Photo: Christoph Hardt / IMAGO / Future Image
"Make a short call?"
Text messages like to come just before midnight, and it was always a gross understatement. One did not speak briefly on the phone with Bettina Gaus. You made sure that there were enough tobacco products on hand, you poured yourself a glass of wine, you made yourself comfortable. Because now followed amusing hours. First of all, it was about the specific occasion, for example a text that she was extremely happy about, precisely because it represented a completely contrary view than her own, then quickly went far beyond that, about the fundamental, soon also about the personal, and however also gladly and extensively about gossip, about celebrity gossip, about industry gossip, about private gossip. You couldn't clap with anyone as well as with Bettina Gaus.
About what and who exactly? That must be kept secret. At the top of the long list of virtues that distinguished Bettina Gaus were discretion and loyalty. She knew exactly with whom she wanted to share what, what name to give, which one to keep quiet, she knew the right dose. How much one would have loved to read her memoirs, with all the anecdotes they experienced. She takes countless secrets, big and small, with her to the grave. She could not only be relied on in that respect.
Bettina Gaus, born 1956 in Munich, graduate of the German School of Journalism, Africa correspondent, head of the »taz« parliamentary office, political correspondent there for decades, was in demand as a discussion partner on the radio and in numerous talk shows because of her brilliant analyzes, and was most recently a brilliant columnist for SPIEGEL especially a very social person. She was really interested in the people with whom she dealt, and they thanked her with trust and friendship - even if and precisely because the friendship with Bettina Gaus was not comfortable. She listened carefully, she asked and thought, and then she gave her opinion. Like her columns, this one has not always been to the delight of the subject of her analysis. But that wasn't a problembecause even the harshest criticism was always carried with deep warmth. And although she was always convinced of the correctness of her point of view, no one had to follow her advice. She didn't follow anyone either. In particular, she brusquely refused gentle admonitions to adopt a perhaps a little healthier way of life.
Bettina Gaus was a completely self-determined person. With great love and commitment, she preserved the memory of her father, the great journalist and diplomat Günter Gaus, but she was never just the daughter, but one of the leading journalists in the Federal Republic of Germany, probably the most important voice of the »taz«, and a formative lecturer for many generations of journalism students. She refused to take note of her Stasi files, which were probably well filled, because she did not want her biography to be dictated by joyless and mindless secret service bureaucrats. And she refused to let the disease rule her life.
Until the end, Bettina Gaus resided on the sofa in her living room, telephoning, smoking, receiving guests, drinking a glass of wine, and debating the political situation with knowledge and wit.
Most of all, she liked to speak proudly of the professional progress of her daughter, a human rights attorney.
To have sent the child into the world with the best of opportunities, that was probably her greatest achievement.
She achieved everything in life that she set out to do.
Bettina Gaus died a satisfied person.
We are left behind who would have liked to have had more from her: one more comment, one more column, one more anecdote, one more gossip.
And make another quick phone call.
